Word: china
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...Beyond China and its immediate environs, the map relies on the great European voyages of exploration of the previous 120 years. Unsurprisingly, those areas that had already been settled by Europeans are drawn in greatest detail: the coastline of Mexico, right up to Baja California, for example, is astonishingly accurate, while that of the Northeastern seaboard of North America is much less so. (See 25 more asian experiences...
...drawings of unicorns, whales and horrible monsters of the land and sea but with text, including endorsements from Ricci's Chinese friends and passages naming territories ("Ka-na-ta," for example) and describing the habits of those who live there. That's how we can be sure that Ming China knew about hammocks. In parts of South America, Ricci wrote, "men sleep without beds or mattresses, but make nets of knotted cords. These they suspend from trees and recline in them." (The Library of Congress does not offer a translation of the text, but you can find a good...
Seventeenth century Chinese, of course, would have grasped the aesthetics of the map quite differently from the way Occidentals do today. In China, "calligraphy is a visual art," says Yee. Combining European learning with Chinese artistic tradition, Ricci worked to make his map (and his mission) attractive to his Chinese hosts. Ricci, Yee says, "knew his stuff...
That he did. But the display of Ricci's great map is a chance to do more than just gawk at his achievement. There is a popular tendency in the West to see China's modern engagement with global society as something brand-new, the sundering of a hermetic seal by which China walled itself away from everyone else. This is quite false. China has been open to other cultures - and influenced them in its turn - for centuries. There's nothing preordained about how its modern rise will play out; much will depend on the skill with which China...
...real growth engine will probably be its international business, which saw double-digit profit growth last year. Overseas, UPS networks include exclusive ground service throughout Europe. In Asia, it has acquired regional carriers, opened an air hub in Shanghai and broken ground on another in Shenzhen, China. "FedEx and DHL have dominated Asia so far," says David Ross, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus. "But FedEx isn't as strong in Europe, and DHL doesn't do the U.S. UPS doesn't have those gaps...