Who discovered America?
Who discovered America?
A map supporting claims that the Chinese admiral Zheng He reached the New World in the early 15th century is obviously a hoax
We all know that a lie goes halfway round the world while truth is putting on its boots. But what if the lie goes the whole way? What if it claims to circumnavigate the globe?
Purported evidence that the Chinese admiral Zheng He (鄭和) sailed his great fleet of junks round the world a century before Columbus, Da Gama and Magellan came out the other week. An 18th-century copy of a map dated 1418 has emerged from a Shanghai bookshop, depicting North and South America, Australia and Antarctica. The map was bought by a Chinese lawyer, Liu Gang (劉鋼), and was reportedly to go on display tomorrow in London’s Maritime Museum. (The museum denies all knowledge of it.)
The map challenges the customary Euro-centric version of global discovery and can thus rely on a weight of political correctness in support. It appears to stake China’s claim to have “discovered” America first.
More: taipeitimes.com