KCR: 1421 by Gavin Menzies (book)

Image via WikipediaMenzies is not a professional historian, but he is a profiessional sailor, and he has an idea that has been meeting huge resistance in the scholarly community... Did Admiral Zheng He sailed his Chinese fleet out of Chinese waters and Southeast Asia, and in fact, may have sailed around the world long before Magellan and others, discovering America a hundred years before Columbus?

As a Chinese American, I am familiar with the story of Zheng He, though not in great detail. I recall reading "historical novels" about Zheng He.

Gavin Menzies was not a professional historian, and he approached this from the view of a sailor, both amateur and former British Navy. Much of his "proof" is a bit on the "thin" side, or a bit stretched. He also is not approaching it like a true historian: looking for both evidence for and against. Thus, a lot of historians automatically discounted him as a "freak" or "crazy guy". Indeed, on a PBS show of the same name, even some CHINESE historians doubt Menzies' claims.

On the other hand, there is a lot of evidence, and altogether there is enough to wonder if more can be found. While some of the evidence can be discounted by doubters, there is simply too much evidence to completely dismiss. There's even a book now called "The 1421 Heresy" that does have a real historian studying the 1421 theory and see what real evidence are there.

The book itself is rather informal, though you can see that Menzies is approaching the book from the angle of looking evidence to fit his theory, instead of a more formal approach. Still, it's a fun read, and makes you look at history in a whole new way.

Since then, many other books have been published that provides more about the puzzle. There's a book that claimed this old colony along Canadian shore may have been a Chinese colony.

Rating: Worth reading, borrow it from the library?