Product Quality, Invention, and China

We seem to be fascinated with China, these days. But conversations about such things as outsourcing, competition, and such often seem to assume that China has historically been backward nation until it began copying and cheaply producing parts and products ten or twenty years ago.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

 A well written book that might clear up the picture is The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester (Harper Collins, 2008).  More information is available by clicking the book icon on the right.  It is the story of an extraordinary British scientist named  Joseph Needham, who fell in love with China and spent his life living in it, studying it, and interacting with people ranging from peasant to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. 

 He arrived in China during World War II and decided to study the scientific and industrial history of China.  The result was a 24 volume work entitled Science and Civilization in China.  I have not read it, nor probably will you, but it is considered one of the great works of literature.  The Man Who Loved China book gives a good flavor of it, and establishes that before the European Renaissance, the Chinese did the majority of inventing in the world.  In the sixteenth century, scientific advances moved to the West, and Chinese creativity and commerce seemed to fade away.  No one seems to agree on the cause for this long quiescent period in science and technology, but clearly it has returned with a bang.

 In the index to Winchester’s book is a list of Chinese Inventions and Discoveries and dates that Needham found them first mentioned in old documents.  Some 250 are mentioned and not only cover an incredible range, but are astonishing for their age. You probably know about gunpowder ((9^th century A.D., and printing (wood block 7^th century AD, bronze type 1400 AD).  But  ball bearings in the 2^nd century B.C.? Seismograph in AD132? Stirrup in 300 AD?  Axial rudder 1^st century AD?

 And I can remember being solemnly told that U.S. engineering students were superior to Chinese engineering students, because the Chinese have never been as creative.  Isn’t self delusion wonderful?

 I think you will find Winchester’s book a wonderful read, not only for insight into Chinese history, but because he is a terrific writer and story teller.