424. Dr. Dave Wang's Paper Helped Local Business Flurishing

Usually, an academic paper helps other scholars to deepen their research and general readers to gain knowledge on the subject. With this post I would like you to enjoy the fact that Dr. Dave Wang's examination of traditional Chinese civilization in North America has helped entrepreneurs to create and develop traditional business. Jon Strother wrote a Special  report for The Post and Courier, in which he told his readers the true story of how a business man created a traditional tea store and make a big business in the United States. From his report we know that Mr. Kyle Brown, from Charleston, South Carolina "has found a strong connection between the early tea trade and Charleston. The Holy City, New York, Boston and Philadelphia represented the four major ports of entry for Colonial tea imports. Little wonder then that Charleston staged its first revolutionary “tea party” even before Boston's more famous one. The tea seized on Charleston's docks in 1773 in response to the British Tea Act was stored in the Old Exchange and then sold a couple of years later to help fund the Revolution. Subsequent protests in Charleston simply dumped the tea into the harbor. 

Despite the setbacks imposed on the tea trade by the Revolutionary War, Americans' thirst for tea continued to grow. According to Dave Wang in an article for the 2011 Virginia Review of Asian Studies about China's cultural influence on the United States, “The Chinese-American tea trade increased steadily after 1785. With the increase of population and wealth, the American people demanded larger and larger quantities of tea.”

 

Jon also told us that "Now there are growing signs of revived interest in historical teas and tea-ways, and Brown's radar is finely tuned to them. Oliver Pluff's teas are currently carried at more than 200 historic sites across the country, from Monticello to Yosemite National Park. “Tea marries really well with history,” he says, “and that's really what we're about.”

 

It will be cool when I drive down to Kyle's traditional tea shop in the south and enjoy his historical tea sometime in the near future.

 

423. George Washington Sorounded by the Imports from China

In the early morning of a day in the late 1780s a patrician gentleman stood in his house in Mount Vernon, his feet cushioned by straw carpeting from China. As he relaxed, he enjoyed Chinese Hyson tea from a Chinese porcelain cup and watched his golden Chinese pheasants strutting on the lawn. Before he ate breakfast, which was served with Chinese porcelain wares, he sat at his table reading news on American trade with China. Later, as he went for a walk around his property, he checked on his geese and pigs also from China. In the afternoon, he would survey his Chinese flower gardens on his farm.

The man was George Washington, first President of the United States. He has a true appreciation for Chinese imports. He personally involved in spearheading U. S. trade with China.

422. Chinese Silk, Jamesetown and Benjamin Franklin

We have learned that Benjamin Franklin promoted the silk production in North America in the colonial ear. Until July 2015, we have no idea when the silk reached North America. According to the article, Unearthing Jamestown’s Leaders, and a Mystery, by Nicholas Fandos , in the New York Times, July 28, 2015, the silk came to North American soon after Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement was established in May 1607. Researchers found the remains of a silk sash over the chest of Captain West’s skeleton, likely indicating his military rank.

In the eve of theAmerican Revolution, Franklin realized the value of silk to a new American society. He visited Ezra Stiles’ home in Newport, Rhode Island in the spring of 1763, to discuss with him the latter’s experiment with raising silkworms. The minister’s 3,000 worms were just beginning to cocoon. Stiles was working hard to gather large amounts of mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. In order to help Stiles’ experiment, Franklin, in December the same year, sent him some prints “copied from Chinese Pictures concerning the Produce of Silk.” Two years later, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the silk industrial development in China, Franklin studied the history of silk in China.

421. American Images of China

It seems that American Image of China is a catchy title as a book. Recently one used the title again for his book published in 2014. History is a study of the past. It is good for a writer do trace back the history of American’s image of China. The author started his description of Americans’ understanding of China from 1776. However, the founders of this country had started their efforts to borrow from Chinese civilization long before 1776. Can a nation's history be cut? Can we understand the whole process of Americans' understanding of China? Clearly, without the examination of the founders great visions on how Chinese civilization could be used to build a new nation in North America, any image of China created after the founding of the United States remains an image of the writer’s own image, even though plus some quotes from some persons. A simple question is, In a book of discussing the image of China, should an author ignore the founders’ image of China?

420. Most Popular Posts in 2015

01. 244. Whose Military Strategies Should the US in Af...       Nov 19, 2011, 113 comments	20731
02. 100. George Washington and the Empress of China      Oct 22, 2008, 159 comments	14330
03.  299. Benjamin Franklin and Ginseng       Feb 24, 2013, 63 comments	5079
04. 259. Ginseing and the Founding Fathers       Apr 28, 2012, 18 comments	4527
05. 241. Why Americans Don't Seek Aristocratic Titles ...       Oct 30, 2011, 20 comments	4405
06. 297. Ginseng, Tea and the American Revolution       Feb 7, 2013, 64 comments	3763
07. 302. What differentiates Chinese from Americans?      Apr 9, 2013, 19 comments	3436
08. 116. China Trade in New England, 1800s       Nov 27, 2008, 19 comments	3382
09. 215. Chinese Influence on American Culture       Mar 29, 2011, 19 comments	1931
10. 307. The Ten Most Popular Posts in this Weblog       May 1, 2013, 16 comments	1649

419. Dr. Dave Wang, Cited in 'The Futility of Law and Development'

Mr. Jeffrey Bingham Mead, the President of Hawaii History Education Council is delighted to report that one of our former board members, Dr. Dave Wang of New York City, has been making inroads into Latin America through his research.



 Dr. Wang is globally famous for his in-depth research on the influences of Chinese civilization on the founding of the United States of America and the American Founders. His blog site is here. 

Dr. Dave Wang wrote in his email to Jeffrey Mead,

."I just found that In his new book, The Futility of Law and Development published by Oxford University on November 24, 2015, Dr. Jedidiah J. Kronche, a well-known Professor from FGV Sao Paulo School of Law (Brazil) cited at least eight of my published papers on the US founding fathers used Chinese Civilization to develop a new America." 

The papers include:

01. Thomas Jefferson's Incorporating Positive Elements from Chinese Civilization, Virginia Review of Asian Studies, 145 (2012)
02. Benjamin Franklin and China,  http://www.benfranklin300.org/_etc_pdf/franklinchina.pdf
03.With China We Trade, Asian Times (March 11, 2009)
04. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Chinese Civilization, , Virginia Review of Asian Studies 32 (2009)
05. The U.S Founders and China, Education About Asia, 7 (2011)