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Q: The US invented fortune cookies for China has China invented anything for other countries?
Pizzas with corn on them.
Scandinavian:
..if the question had been "The US invented fortune cookies for China has China invented anything useful for other countries?" your answer would have been wrong !
Ok, I've seen threads like this before and usually they are leaped upon by the bashers to say something like "Actually none of those were invented in China the (insert name) did it first", so as it's quiet at work I dug out a non-Chinese source, and it stated the following, (source at the end):
Papermaking
Chinese legend tells that the new invention of paper was presented to the Emperor in the year 105 AD by Cai Lun. Archeological evidence, however, shows that paper was in use two hundred years before then. Either way, the Chinese were significantly ahead of the rest of the world. The craft of papermaking relied upon an abundance of bamboo fiber to produce a fine quality paper. In China: Ancient Arts and Sciences, the papermaker uses only the traditional materials and methods to produce fine art paper.
Printing
The Chinese invention of moveable type, credited to Bi Sheng in the year 1045 AD, did not significantly impact Chinese society. Three hundred years later in Europe, Gutenberg's development of moveable type revolutionized the Western world. Why? The Chinese language uses 3000 to 5000 characters in an average newspaper. The English language, in comparison, uses 26 characters in an average newspaper. Clearly, manipulating 5000 characters on a printing press took much longer than moving 26. Still, the invention of moveable type furthered Chinese technology and its role in the advancement of human civilization.
Gunpowder
Imagine their enemy's surprise when the Chinese first demonstrated their newest invention in the eighth century AD. Chinese scientists discovered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). The military applications were clear. New weapons were rapidly developed, including rockets and others that were launched from a bamboo tube. Once again, the raw materials at hand, like bamboo, contributed ideas for new technologies.
Compass
By the third century AD, Chinese scientists had studied and learned much about magnetism in nature. For example, they knew that iron ore, called magnetite, tended to align itself in a North/South position. Scientists learned to "make magnets" by heating pieces of ore to red hot temperatures and then cooling the pieces in a North/South position. The magnet was then placed on a piece of reed and floated in a bowl of water marked with directional bearings. These first navigational compasses were widely used on Chinese ships by the eleventh century AD.
http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/info/current/inventions.html
Agricultural Innovations
Around the Third Century B.C., China produced the moldboard plow for tilling farmland. This ground-buster had a wing-shaped cast-iron blade that turned up the soil more easily and efficiently. Eventually, these plows would revolutionize agriculture in the Western world.
Chinese farmers greatly improved the ability of horses to pull wagons or plows with the "collar harness." Unlike the "throat harnesses" used in Europe, the collar harness did not choke the animal. When horses breathed easier, they could pull more weight greater distances.
The wheelbarrow is another laborsaving device invented by the Chinese during the First Century B.C. These one-wheeled wonders wouldn't even exist in Europe before the 11th or 12th Centuries.
http://www.minnesota-china.com/education/emscitech/inventions.htm
mArtiAn:
Jesus, what a shocker, that's truly unbelievable. You're at work!?
Pssst.
(That was the sound of my beer. Cheers)
Scandinavian:
re gunpowder.
The Discovery Channel Show Mythbusters has an episode where they are recreating ancient Chinese rockets. They are inaccurate, difficult etc. But if you are an army with only moderately pointy metal blades as weaponry, this must have been a terrifying adversary.
further. China also at some point made great advances in sea travel. however it was never used for anything as the Chinese had no interest in the outside world, so they never explored the seas. The Kingdom is already in the middle, why bother about the outside.
both are examples of brilliant technology but lack of ability to make it actually useable.
Hugh.G.Rection:
Scandinavian: Totally agree, I read a book about Marco Polo and there was a chapter (or two) about Gunpowder, as a pure weapon per se it was (probably) not much use. But as a fear multiplier it was (again probably) unheralded. And anyway that was not my point, it was / is a Chinese invention.
Traveler:
That's it? In 5,000 years, that's all they did? What about something recently, like in the last 500 years or so?
boqievents:
Any in the last say, 1000 years?
I just read about some US/UK scientists inventing glasses which help people who are colourblind.
Literally one example TODAY of a useful life changing invention made by the 'lao wai'.
Shame same cannot be said of China.
nevermind:
Koreans invented moveable type and I've read the paper thing is actually BS and it was known to be used in ancient greece..
Mobile apartment blocks...
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/06/29/shanghai-building-collapses-nearly-intact/
Chinese women.
xinyuren:
I second this! Though I question if they were invented for us or as a weapon against us. Either way, I'm all in.
The "US" did not invent fortune cookies "for China". They were most likely invented by Japanese immigrants in America, and popularized by Chinese immigrants.
Anyway, that doesn't matter, they were invented to make money, not as "a gift to China" (where, ironically, if you find any, they are sold as "Genuine American Fortune Cookies" and they have pretty much not taken off here for being "too American").
Also, I'm pretty certain China has never invented anything "for the world". Even the older stuff, like the compass and gunpowder, was invented for the benefit of Chinese.
I don't know what you mean by "for" someone's country. But I'm sure there's things you don't even realize.
Clearly you guys don't listen to enough Rammstein. We're ALL living in America.
Yes they invented gun powder to make fireworks. We used it to kill each other. Franck3
They also invented paper. For some reason they did not invent many musical instruments of any renown. Franck3
