"What can we do to honor Zheng He?" (#108; Topic H)

On 3/4/06, when the Chinese Community Center in DC sponsored a session on Zheng He, one participant suggested a petition to UN. A week later, on 3/11/06, when the Zheng He Society of the Americas held a meeting to preview and critique my presentation to be given two days later (#106), that same participant repeated his suggestion. On both occasions, the suggestion was well received -- in any case, it deserves additional exposure. Thus, with some hasty research between Saturday and Monday, I introduced the following as my last slide in my presentation at the CC Library of DC on 3/13/06:

Q: What can we do to honor Zheng He?
Petition the United Nations to make July 11 the INTERNATIONAL MARITIME DAY as a means of honoring Zheng He
>> In 1992, UNESCO wanted to honor Columbus with an international maritime day; it failed due to objections from South American countries
>> Zheng He's fleet, both in size and in number, was many times larger than Columbus's; Zheng He had no territorial claims nor plundered

My wife and I happened to be in Genoa (Columbus's birthplace) in 1992; to honor the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of America, we only found a few Italian flags scattered about his residence -- none of the many celebrations, particularly those mounted spontaneously by residents in Southeast Asia countries, to honor Zheng He in 2005. (I hope to convert my Genoa and Southeast Asian photographs into slides for my Zheng He presentations in the future.) For viewers of this blog who share this sentiment, I sincerely hope that you would lend your support by adding your name and comments to this entry.
Posted at 10:46 am, Sunday, March 19, 2006