Hawaii History Blog Profiles: The Founding Fathers and Chinese Civilization

China's history is one of a proud, mysterious and ancient civilization. Over the past 150 years this nation's history has been marked by war, turmoil, famine, a decadent imperial ruling site, foreign conquerors, native warlords, a feudal past that has quickly transformed itself into a modern, global society. 

Among the historical mysteries of China something few on either side of the Pacific Ocean have realized until recently: the influence of Chinese civilization on the Founder of the United States of America in the 1700's. 

Dr. Dave Wang set out to explore and share his discoveries though his blog site The Founding Fathers and Chinese Civilization. 

His blog site explores "the cultural influence of traditional Chinese civilization on colonial North American and the early development of the United States." 

In 2012 Dr. Wang joined the Board of Directors of History Education Hawaii, Inc. 

Born and raised in Northeast China, Dr. Wang earned his MA and Ph.D in the United States. 

"So far some papers in the project have been published at home and abroad," says Dr. Wang, "including Benjamin Franklin and the Great Wall of China, Benjamin Franklin and Chinese Civilization, and Benjamin Franklin and China: A Survey of Benjamin Franklin’s Efforts at Drawing Positive Elements from Chinese Civilization during the Formative Age of the United States." 

Dr. Wang's pioneering research has earned him a distinguished international reputation. Selected published papers have been translated into international languages including Italian and Chinese. He is often invited to present his research findings to audiences around the world. 

"Certain Chinese products, such as tea, had become deeply involved in the colonies and became an indispensable element of colonists’ daily life. The British control of tea and the colonists’ struggle against this control changed the historical course of the colonies. The tax on tea and the resentment with the tea monopoly by the East Indian Company was one of the factors that led the colonists to rebel. Immediately before the successful 1784 sailing of the Empress of China, the first American commercial ship to reach China, the President of Yale College told George Washington, "Navigation will carry the America flag around the globe itself, and display the thirteen stripes and new constellation, at Bengal and Canton, on the Indus and Ganges, on the Whang-ho and the Yang-ti-king; and with commerce will import the wisdom and literature of the East."