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Asking the “Grand Question” – A talk by David Rennie

1522693578
  • Data evento: Il 16 Maggio 2024, 18:30 (Ora locale)
  • A pagamento: No
TOPIC

For most of modern history, China was centuries ahead of the West in innovation. China invented the compass, gunpowder and printing – three technologies that in the judgement of Francis Bacon, the 17th century British philosopher and statesman, “altered the face and state of the world”. China invented the first stirrups, transforming warfare on horseback. It created the crossbow, and discovered vaccination against smallpox.

Then something happened. Modern, theoretical science, the so-called Scientific Revolution, was born in 15th century Europe, not in China. A similar puzzle surrounds the applied and mechanical sciences. While Europe was still in the Dark Ages, China had invented cast iron and spinning wheels, water mills, canal locks and grand irrigation projects: the building blocks for an industrial revolution. But then China’s progress stalled, and the industrial revolution took place elsewhere, notably in Britain.

In the 1940s a brilliant, eccentric British scholar and admirer of China, Joseph Needham of Cambridge University, set out to understand what he called the “Grand Question”: namely, why was China so far ahead of the West, and why did it fall behind? His inquiry is known to this day as “The Needham Question.”

Mr. David Rennie will address this topic.

SPEAKER

David Rennie is Beijing bureau chief of The Economist. He is the author of its weekly “Chaguan” column on China and co-host of the “Drum Tower” podcast. He joined The Economist in 2007. From 2007-10 he was the “Charlemagne” columnist, based in Brussels. From 2010-12 he was British political editor and “Bagehot” columnist, in London. In the summer of 2012 he moved to Washington DC. He was “Lexington” columnist 2012-17, and Washington bureau chief 2013-18. In May 2018 he moved to China as Beijing bureau chief, launching “Chaguan” in September of that year. Previously, he was on the foreign staff of the Daily Telegraph, with postings in Sydney, Beijing, Washington DC and Brussels. He is a contributing panellist on the US radio programme “1A” on NPR/WAMU. The Asia Society awarded the 2023 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia to David Rennie and Sue-Lin Wong for their coverage of China.

Language

English

 

VENUE

Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing

2 Sanlitun dongerjie, Chaoyang District

LANGUAGE

English only