But what did Asian visitors think of Europe?
A thread:
Take Michael Shen Fuzong, a Chinese convert to Catholicism, who came to Europe in the 1680s to become a Jesuit priest.
antonhowes.substack.com/p/age-of-inven…
While Europeans were interested in Chinese religion, however, he was interested in European technology.
Such items were apparently popular in Siam, too.
But these hints about Chinese and Siamese opinions are actually very frustrating, because so little survives:
And although a Siamese embassy to France took extremely meticulous records of their trip, those records were largely destroyed in a fire. Argh!
Some of them are downright charming, and carefully observant.
Çelebi devoted pages and pages to geeking out over French water infrastructure - its canals, fountains, aqueducts and pumping machines.
He visited the Paris observatory, and peered through its telescopes, impressed at how the invention allowed people to see things unknown to the ancients. Though he was rightly sceptical of some French claims:
And, in addition to the scientific geekery, Çelebi also included some touching personal portraits.
He noted much about English laws, customs, and social habits, some of which seemed downright bizarre:
And the dogs, too, were simply beyond belief:
As for the local food, Ictisam al-Din bemoaned that it was under-spiced, under-salted, and could do with some ghee.
And he gave a faithful record of local opinions:
Ictisam al-Din was wisely sceptical of all such claims, which is where I think such accounts are so valuable.
More detail here: antonhowes.substack.com/p/age-of-inven…