Festival:
Over 18 months, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Mercer University, and Kennesaw State University, Cambridge University Press, the Confucius Institute, Harvard University, and the China Studies Institute will host seminars on various topics related to Chinese history, culture, philosophy, business, trade, science, politics, foreign policy, inventions, and, contributions to civilization.
Commander Gavin Menzies, HMRN Retired
“Gavin Menzies (born 1937) is a retired British submarine commander and amateur historian best known as the author of the controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which asserts that ships from the Chinese fleet of admiral Zheng He travelled to the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492 and circumnavigated the globe a century before Ferdinand Magellan as part of the era of Chinese exploration. This thesis has been discounted "as nonsense by professional historians.
Menzies, who has no command of Chinese, was born in London, England. Early versions of his book erroneously said he was born in China but in actuality he moved to China when he was 3 weeks old. Menzies joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines from 1959 to 1970. Menzies claims he sailed the routes sailed by Ferdinand Magellan and Captain James Cook, while he was commander of the diesel submarine HMS Rorqual between 1968 and 1970, a contention questioned by some of his critics. Menzies currently resides in North London with his wife Marcella.
