... Christopher Macinkowicz 8/23/2013 Professor Ibrahim H. Alsaeed, Ph.D. World Cultures I Many people do not realize how many different and important inventions China has added to our world. Our everyday life would much different if it weren’t for the Chinese. From fishing reels to sunglasses, alcohol to the umbrella, many inventions that we take for granted are the result of ancient Chinese innovation. Even the fork and toilet paper were invented by the Chinese people. Although each of the inventions I have already mentioned is extremely important in their own way, there are four main Chinese inventions that I believe have changed the course of history. They are, in no particular order, gunpowder, paper, the compass, and silk. I will discuss each one of these four very important inventions in this paper and also reveal which one I believe has been the most important to my personal life. First off, let’s talk about gunpowder. Gunpowder is a highly volatile compound that is made from potassium nitrate and charcoal. Originally used to treat skin diseases as far back as 140 AD, eventually the Chinese people mastered the art of igniting the gunpowder to launch fireworks and rockets which were used to defend China from Mongol invaders as early as the 9th or 10th century AD. Gunpowder has since been used by people all over the world for purposes ranging from hunting to warfare. Were it not for the discovery of gunpowder, we would not have guns, therefore hunting...
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...between different lands from the year 200 BCE to 1450 CE, the Silk Roads experienced many patterns of interaction. During this period of time, the roads changed such as the amount they were used, which changed as nations and empires rose and fell; the goods and ideas that traveled the roads after Europe and Asia increased their trading; and lastly the safety of the roads varied throughout this time period. However, the Silk Roads still experienced many continuities as well, for example their original purpose which was to facilitate the exchange of goods between Asia and Europe never changed; they continued to influence many cultures especially with the traveling of religions; and the Silk Roads have always had long term affects and influence on powerful empires. Towards the beginning of their patterns of interaction in 200 BCE, the Silk Roads were minimally used in East Asia. As time progresses, the roads increase as did empires such as Rome and Han who grew both economically and culturally due to usage of the roads. But, instability and economic pressures took a toll on the two empires, and when Rome fell in 476, the Silk Roads were used far less than how they originally were. The roads managed to pick up again as the Byzantine Empire in the east emerged and was able to prosper from usage of the already available roads. However, the Mongols come into play and invade the empire and end Byzantine’s era with the Silk Roads. In Western Europe, society was in the period called the Middle...
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...Ancient Chinese Contributions Humanities 111 World Cultures 1 05/27/2012 In the days of Ancient Chinese, inventions were created using different techniques and styles by using things that we use in our everyday living. There are many contributions that I thought were important. Those inventions that were created by the Ancient Chinese were Umbrella’s. Umbrellas were invented by the Chinese. They made umbrellas from oiled paper. It was made from oiled paper because it repelled water. The frames of the umbrellas were made from mulberry bark and bamboo. Chinese used the umbrellas to keep the sun off of their skin. The common people used blue umbrellas and people that were of royal used red and yellow umbrellas. (This was cited from The Ancient Chinese Contributions, published by Deng Yinke. Information came from pages 1-23). The Seismograph was created by an astronomer during the Han Dynasty. The astronomer created the seismograph to give warning of an earthquake. The seismograph color was bronze and the vase was covered with dragons and toads. A long medal pendulum hung inside the vase. On the outside it had eight dragon heads; each was mounted onto its sides. Each dragon had a ball in its mouth and the dragon’s head was mounted onto its side as well. The pendulum swung in the direction in which the earthquake occurred. The pendulum would strike a rod inside the vase, the rod would then knock a ball out of the dragon’s mouth, and then it would drop into the...
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...An interesting piece in the museum was the painted pottery figure of a kneeling camel standing at a height of 41.5 cm, created during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). This piece serves to reflect an important element of the culture during the Tang and Han dynasty as many people travelled by camel under order of the emperor to go west, in the process creating the Silk Road. The result of exploring the west resulted in a great exchange of ideas and culture for China. The west and east were finally connected. A rather striking piece that existed in the museum was the pottery horse-drawn cart with a driver standing at 168 cm, created during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE). The chariot was one that carried the deceased, drawn by a red holy horse. This horse actually exists in real life. It is much larger than the typical horse and identified by the red color of its sweat. The Chinese believed that this large stallion would lead them into the next life, reincarnation. We can tell the people really believed in the items they were burying with them to bring into the next life because everything was so carefully crafted and perfected. Another sculpture captured my attention as it solidified my understanding of the fengshui we read about in book Chinese Religious Life. This piece was a pottery residential compound from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). According to fengshui, the gate must always exist on the southwest end with a screen to protect the people from evil spirits. Each unit...
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...Huzhou (湖州) is located in the north of Zhejiang province. Because of its favored geographical position (the center part of Yangtze River Delta Economic Area), Huzhou has strong links with the surrounding provinces such as Jiangsu and Anhui. It is the only city that names after a lake in the Taihu Lake Rim (环太湖地区). Huzhou is an old city with a long history. 248 BC, the city was setup by the State of Chu. At that time, the name of the city is Gucheng County (孤城县). During the reign of Qin dynasty, Wucheng County (乌程县) was used. However, the name was changed again to Wuxing Shire (吴兴郡) in the age of Kingdom of Wu. According to the historical material, Huzhou was first used in Sui Dynasty in 602. Today, Huzhou is prefecture-level city which administers five county-level divisions (Wexing District吴兴区, Nanxun District南浔区, Deqing County德清县, Changxing County 长兴县and Anji County安吉县). In history, the famous general, Xiangyu (项羽), built up a city in Huzhou. It says that he quartered troops and led his soldiers to against Qin here. The original name of the north city gate is Fengsheng (奉胜门), but the civilians always call it Bawang Gate (霸王门). The story of Xiangyu is quite famous. Although his life was controversial, he was regarded as a hero in people’s mind. Actually, some cultural heritages here related to him were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution such as the Xiangwang Temple; Huzhou still has vestiges on Mount Bian (弁山) where Xiangyu put his troops. This year, as part of the city...
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...Global Business What is global business? It is not difficult to define this word. By definition, global business basically stands for a business which operates across the globe, rather than just in a country. However, global business is not something new or strange in today’s society, yet the exchange of goods over a great distance has already existed since very long time ago. Back in the Stone Age, anthropologists have already established trading in Europe over a long distance; According to the history, the Silk Road, a historical network of interlinking trade routes for the lucrative Chinese silk trade, is also a type of “global business” back in the old time. Although these two examples cannot perfectly represent what global business is, still, they had the same characteristics. In the 21st century, today’s society, global business has a much bigger and broader meaning, it could include creation and transfer of goods, skills, information, resources, and even services. Resources may include raw materials, capital, and energy, etc.; whereas goods include tangible goods and intangible goods, such as manufactured parts, sub-assemblies, and assemblies. Intangible goods, like service, may include financial, accounting, import and export. It is no longer defined only by the distance or number of offices companies have in countries around the world or how many products they sell internationally, yet, according to an article published on Business Inquirer, by James G. Velasquez...
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...Shadow of the Silk Road records Colin Thubron’s journey along the greatest land route on earth. He passes through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and describes the history, cultures and people along the way. The Silk Road was described as a huge network of arteries splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. To travel it is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions and inventions. Shadow of the Silk Road encounters Islamic countries in many forms. Overall it explains changes in China that transformed since the Cultural Revolution. Throughout this book, Thubron discovers and identifies the transformation of history that transpired. He begins to reminisce and expresses drastic cultural changes that occurred throughout his life experience and throughout his journey on the Silk Road. Thubron portrays his journey to be momentous, but yet anonymous. He states, "Sometimes a journey arises out of hope and instinct, the heady conviction, as you finger travels along the map". (p. 2) Thubron witnessed the turmoil of a society racing to catch up with the future. At the beginning of my reading, I wondered if Thubron was associating his journey to the Cultural Revolution as pathway to his purpose. "During the Cultural Revolution I was struggled badly" (p. 56) It seems as if he felt the need to face the past and think of what was needed for the future. "After the Cultural Revolution, anything is happy." (p...
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...security borders and gather information. With corruption of law enforcement, also an issue in these countries, the agency combats the problem by giving their officers a salary well above that of local officers. Another problem shown is that the United Nations, rather than the countries fund the program. Countries banding together to assist each other to help prevent further narcotic movements are future goals sought after by the program. Osh and Brussels states that according to their article, "opiates have fueled conflict throughout the region and are likely to have been a significant source of financial support for terrorist organizations with a global reach" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). The strain on security and social issues caused by the Silk Road drug trade have begun to affect the neighboring nations of Afghanistan. "Afghanistan is generally regarded as the world's largest exporter of heroin" and that "there are direct links between the drug business, arms purchases for the country's civil war, and the activities of terrorists" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). They believe that...
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...Trade Routes 1. Indian Ocean Maritime Trade- A key factor in the trade of the East and West. Thanks to dhows and other long distance ships, this trade route spread from Indonesia to East Africa, and many cities in between. 2. Silk Road- Being 6,400 miles long, the Silk Road connected the East to the west through the vast lands of asia, and up and through Europe. It added many contributions to the development of many civilizations and countries, such as China, Persia, and India. Not only goods were spread through the known world, many philosophies and religions were spread, because of the vast land the Silk Road traveled through. 3. Trans-Saharan Trade- When gold came in demand for the needs of coinage for the mediterranean nations, Berbers...
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...Ever wondered how the Silk Road got it’s name? Ever wondered what the point of the Silk Road was? Ever wondered how the Silk Road effect’s us now? Well, prepare to be amazed. The Silk Road was an ancient trade route that connected China to the west and it wasn’t 1 road it was a series of roads. The Silk Road traded not only silk, gunpowder, food but also ideas. To begin with, the Silk Road was a series of trade routes going through all sorts of countries in Eurasia. The Silk Road was located from China to the Mediterranean. Now that you know what it is and where it’s located you can understand it’s importance. The Newsela article stated, that many different things were traded. According to the BrainPop video, “the Silk Road has been there...
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...During the time of the Han Dynasty, many ideas, innovations, religion, and other luxury items were spread on the Silk Road. The Silk Road was a network of trade routes established during the Han Dynasty of China. Cultural diffusion played a major role during this time. Cultural diffusion is the spread of beliefs or ideas to another place. The Silk Road spread many innovations around, including silk. However, the title is misleading because ideas were the most significant thing exchanged, not luxury items. The name “silk road” is very misleading, the name was not even used until 1877 by a German geographer, Baron von Richtofen.The Silk road were a series of “short irregular hops, rarely following any fixed or time-worn pathway…” The main thing...
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...In my selected opinion editorial, the author argues that the countries along the silk road are “both welcoming and wary of Beijing’s ‘one-belt, one-road’ initiative,” because some local people express their concerns that China’s influence expands and “this is an imperialistic move.” To respond to this argument, I turn to the Qing dynasty’s policy to stimulate trades in the Central Asia. In the eighteenth century, the Qing empire conquered the West Regions, and the Manchus tended to maintain the routes of trade in Tarim and Zungharian Basins which were parts of the overland silk road in Xinjiang, though the overland one was not as prosperous as earlier time. This inspires me to seek the answer to a series of questions as follows. To what extent...
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...The End of Legal Ivory Trade in China The ancient art of ivory carving, trading, and selling is an important tradition in the Chinese culture that can date back to almost 3,000 BCE (Britannica). Around the time of the imperial era, ivory was used to carve statues of deities and medallions in garden scenes, which were envied by the court officials. Ivory carvings, chopsticks, and jewelry were also a way to show off wealth. This is what the ivory market was primarily driven by in China (Katz). The Chinese are very proud of their ivory carving history and argue that it is a long lasting tradition that should go on, even though about 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers for their ivory, every year. This means that the population of elephants are decreasing at a rate of about 1 to 2% each year. At this rate, elephants are said to be extinct within just a few generations (Bale). Not only are elephants beautiful creatures that are being extinguished quickly, but they play an absolute vital role in the African ecosystem, and are considered a keystone species in their landscape. This means that they are essentially maintaining the balance of all other species within the ecosystem (Margrit). By poaching elephants, we are basically taking one of the keys of the landscape, which can offset the ecosystem almost completely, this is why we need to stop poaching elephants, and start saving them. In 2015, President Xi Jinping, of China, and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to “nearly complete”...
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...5/28/2011 Per: 6 Greece and China are different because of their response to geographic challenges. First off, According to the World History book, Greece has 70 to 80% of mountains, (Carnine, pg.355), and you think that might not be a lot of mountain range, but to them it is a lot. Greece was also surrounded on three sides, (Carnine, 355), so they had nowhere to trade, no roads, they had nothing. So, Greece had to trade by sea to get to the places that they needed to go. They also lived near the lowlands so that they could trade, and farm. Did you know that 20 to 30% of Greece landscape was good for farming, (Carnine, pg. 356)? The rocky farmland and hill made it good to grow olives and grape. Other than that, Athens did not have a lot of natural resources. The country of Greece was broken into city-states. Each city-state was full of mountains but divided by water. Also, the Acropolis is falling apart because of the pollution and acid rain, (top 5 endangered heritage cites), because of this some of the concrete that was covered in bronze is now turning grey. There architectural heritage is falling apart as fast as its citizens. Only men qualified for citizenship and only males that were above 18 years of age became a citizen. Women were lower than men and anyone that was a non-citizen was a slave. Know let me tell you about China. China is surrounded by deserts, mountains, and water. There were only two major river systems in China, (Carnine...
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...A COMPARISM OF HR POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN CHINA AND PAKISTAN INTRODUCTION The introduction of globalization has brought an awareness of the differences in partaking in business activities from one country to the other and from region to region. This is because policies and structures that guide the successful conduct of business activities vary. Human Resource is the most important asset for any organization as it is the source of achieving competitive advantage as well as the development of organisational strategy. In order to succeed, organisations must ensure that they have an effective HRM system in order to achieve organisational objectives. CHINA Name: Peoples Republic of China Population: 1.35 billion Capital: Beijing Largest City: shanghai Area: 9.6 million sq km (3.7 million sq miles) PAKISTAN Name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan Population: 176.7 million (UN, 2011) Capital: Islamabad Largest City: Karachi Area: 796,095 sq km (307,374 sq Major languages: Mandarin Chinese Major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, miles), excluding Pakistaniadministered Kashmir (83,716 sq km/32,323 sq miles) Major languages: English, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi Islam, Taoism Life expectancy: 72 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 Renminbi (yuan) (Y) = Major religion: Islam 10 jiao = 100 fen; Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 67 years (women) (UN) CHINA Main exports: Manufactured goods...
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