QI - S07E04 - The Chinese, the teacup and glass.

The invention of the teacup changed the course of Chinese history, because it was invented so early. The thing is that the Chinese never drank wine and people in the West liked to drink it in glass. The invention of glass meant that we also had the technology of lens grinding, telescopes and microscopes. The invention of spectacles meant that intellectuals and scientists had an extra 15-20 years of a reading and active life. Also came the invention of beakers, flasks and retorts, which was useful because glass is chemically neutral. Between the 14th century and the 19th century, no glass was made in China. It also meant that they had no mirrors and their windows were made out of paper, which meant they had dark houses. So, the point is that since they liked drinking tea from the teacup, they never bothered to try to invent glass.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• QI
• S07E04
• WS
• PDTV
• XviD
• WATERS
• VTV

[honestron]

For a start, the image of the tea set in the backround is actually a Japanese 'Satsuma' tea set.

Indeed the Chinese were using glass many centuries ago .

Somebody should sack the researcher :)

[lockhrt]

This is such ignorant BS :/

[shwwnn]

how ignorant. China has had glass and glass making technology ever since the 5th century AD. China didn't develop science b/c of its bureaucratic structure. Ever since the Tang dynasty, nationwide exams were held to find talent to manage the nation. The subjects on the tests were entirely literary. Studying literature was the easiest way upward. Only literary talent was recognized as valuable, which sidelined all other talents including ones in math, medicine, music, etc.

[qloey]

@soildmoose You're right, what's a couple of lies between friends? Or sent out to millions via the mass media, for that matter? Propaganda is good for you. Hey, did you see the show about how the Nazis didn't really gas 2 million Jews, and that Poland actually invaded Germany first? It was a riot! ^_^

[soildmoose]

@qloey Are you some kind of Chinese agent or something, why on earth would you take this so seriously?

[qloey]

@soildmoose So the whole REAL agenda of this show is to minimalize the actual scientific and medical discoveries of China, because they do not coincide with the percieved superiority of Western science. THAT topic is a much larger one which I will not attempt to educate you about here.

Get it now?

[qloey]

@soildmoose Second, the discovery of optics, which is what they are actually discussing, goes back about three thousand years, and includes lenses invented my the same inventors of glass, as well as the Greeks discovering the refracting properties of water.

[qloey]

@soildmoose You miss the point entirely. It is utter ethnocentric bollocks, and historical bullshit to boot. First of all, the invention of wine predates the invention of glass by about 2,000 years, so that pretty much throws out the bullshit "theory" that "glass was invented because wine was beautiful".

Glass, for that matter, was used by Mesopotamians ad Egyptians - hardly "our culture", as the host so arrogantly puts it.

[soildmoose]

@qloey Lol wut? It's not racist at all. They say that the Chinese were incredibly well advanced in other areas, just not glass or lens making.

It would be like calling the Chinese racist for inventing gunpowder first!

[soildmoose]

@oelph Lol, Stephen Fry reads this stuff off of his cards and the auto cue, he's not the researcher!