156. Hawaii Historical Education Council Promotes Dr. Wang's Paper

History Education Council of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii, United States The History Education Council of Hawaii, Inc., is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit 501(C) 3 corporation serving the history learning community of the state of Hawaii. HECH promotes study, research, effective learning theories and innovative history teaching practices.

Word has reached us that Dr. Dave Wang of St. Johns University in New York had a paper, "Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Civilization" published in the online publication of the 2009 issue of the Virginia Review of Asian Studies. You can access the introduction to Dr. Wang's paper from this link.

155. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Civilization

I am pleased to tell you that Dr. Wang's paper, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Civilization has been published in the online publication of the 2009 issue of the Virginia Review of Asian Studies. (This issue will appear on 2-3 further sites in due course and a small hardcopy version, primarily for libraries, will follow in the fall). You may access this article from this link.

According to Dr. Wang, the U.S. founding fathers with a great vision for this nation worked hard to draw positive elements from Chinese civilization during the formative age of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson made their efforts to use the positive elements from Chinese civilization to build a new nation in North America. Benjamin Franklin promoted Confucian moral philosophy to North America in his effort to enhance his own and others’ virtue in North America. George Washington tried to grow Chinese flowers in his garden. Thomas Jefferson attempted to combine Chinese architectural style with the European style. The founding fathers’ efforts have produced great influence on the United States and become a valuable legacy.

VRAS (Virginia Review of Asian Studies) is the official journal of the Virginia Consortium for Asian Studies. As you probably know that VRAS is indexed in the annual bibliography of the Association for Asian Studies and www.asia-studies.com .

154. Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Architecture

At the 18th World History Assocation annual conference in Salem State College, Dr. Wang presented the topic, Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Architecture on June 28, 2009. In the following you will find the main content of his presentation. Jeffersonian Style has become a classical building style in the architectural history of the world. Today the Jeffersonian Style is still used and loved by architects. Since Thomas Jefferson created his Jeffersonian Style by incorporating Chinese architectural designs such as the railing below the dome and surrounding walkways, it has become popular throughout the history and the world. However, it was not primarily out of architectural reasons that Jefferson made this style. His building style was a symbolic of a newly formed society/nation trying to break free of its past. The virtual consensus among the founding generation of American statesmen was to “pursue a political destiny separate from Europe.” Jefferson, who believed that a building was not merely a walled structure, but a metaphor for American ideology, and the process of construction was equal to the task of building a nation, used his style as an effort to form the identity of North America. Jeffersonian Style expressed the American desire to break cultural and political ties to Europe.

153. "George Washington and the China Trade" in Salem

On June 26 2009 in the world famous Peabody Essex Museum Dr. Wang gave the presentation on how George Washington supported the United States trade with China in its inception in 1784, when he recommended the competent business manager for the Empress of China, the first American commercial ship owned and outfitted by the revolutionary veterans in an attempt to bring the fledgling United States to enter international commerce. When the trade started, Washington monitored its development carefully, paying attention to the Ginseng trade in Virginia and visiting the business leaders engaging the China Trade. He also invited Peter Perkins, an important businessman who was head of the China Trade, to spend a night at Mountain Vernon. In 1789, Washington stated the significance of the trade. He told Marquis de Lafayette, one of his French generals from the Revolutionary War, that "our revenues have been considerably more productive than it was imagined they would be.” Washington, in his farewell address, told his fellow American citizens that “the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations.”