"Marco Polo did not go to China" Topic

"As an Asianist, teaching world history can be very frustrating. Most world history textbooks are written by Western historians, mostly the same Europeanists who write the Western Civ texts, but they usually add an Asianist to the group, usually a China or India person. Sometimes they get it right, but a lot of the time you can tell that the Asia chapters were written by someone who picked up one or two basic textbooks. You can sometimes even tell which textbook (I love Mikiso Hane's work, but it has to be read in context!), and they're often out-of-date (Asia textbooks don't get the kind of semi-annual polishing now current in the trade, and there are some really creaky old classics still being used by thousands of people; that's a subject for another post).

So I spend a fair bit of time in class correcting and contextualizing the textbook material. Maybe the experience is the same for Europeanists, or Americanists? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that material is much better served by the distillation process than the Asian material.

The worst, the most consistently annoying thing, though, is Marco Polo. Let me say this clearly and plainly: Marco Polo did not go to China, Marco Polo did not work for the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Yes, it was possible to make the journey, and yes, some non-Chinese did serve the Yuan. But the errors in his Travels cannot be glossed over as"a traveler's tendency to exaggerate (especially in regard to numbers)" and his absence from Yuan records (which were pretty well kept) cannot be slipped by with"may have been employed" and the distinct likelihood that Polo was simply embellishing translations of Chinese gazetteers he picked up in Persia is not clearly expressed by"Scholars have long regarded Marco Polo's book, if used carefully, as an important historical document."…"
Main page
historynewsnetwork.org/blog/6746

Amicalement
Armand

yeah well everyone can have an opinion!

No! NOOoo!!! Not so close to Christmas.

How did Italy get spaghetti noodles then?

I've been told for literally eons that's how the Italians got noodles.

Did he order in?

Ancient Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon can go to China."

Seven hundred sixty two years and the argument is still going on!

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Contextualising be an 'Asianist' what ever the …. That is. Enough I'm even giving America to Chris Colombus but this the truth must be the truth acording to the PC intrests.. ENOUGH! Your making people take sides, keep your oppinion and accept others.
BTW Merry Christmas all.

Well, the author is a history professor: Jonathan Dressner, Pittsburgh State University, link ; so this is not total clickbait fake news.

But the Wikipedia article on Marco Polo has a pretty extensive "Authenticity and veracity" section with a lot of citations, more than Mr. Dressner's above article gives. link

Decide for yourself.

That article is from 2004.

Since, then, Wikipedia has established an article with a dozen pages of arguments pro and contra him being actually in China.

Expressively:
link