Hmm, great Chinese word problem, fascinating to see people, very rich people but still, expected to be identified by a unique personal perfume, and interesting to see how such an educated society ended up closing itself off. Just when more aggressive people with little sophistication and less empathy begin to use the very tools of the most advanced society to take market share away.

What bothered me was the frequent comparison of slavery in Asia, with the transatlantic slave trade, and the inference that there was not really much difference. The frequent noting that slavery was something that has always existed in human society. There was never anything about how viciously the transatlantic slave trade turned skin color into the only marker of slavery, and build a society upon which racism was the foundation and the lasting systemic basis. This didn't happen anywhere else in the world because slaves had always been of various colors and from different areas. But in the United States, thanks to the transatlantic slave trade, any person who was not white was expected to be a slave. And then looked down upon. Where as earlier in history, slaves had been artisans, tutors, teachers, or even soldiers, this was reduced to zero in the United States. Slaves, always considered negro, were considered inferior, not allowed to be educated, never allowed to touch a weapon, and not generally encouraged to learn master trades (yes, SC was an exception, and some plantations), because that was reserved in preference for the lower class white men. Never in history has a society been built upon racial background and slavery encased in that. That is the difference. She does not mention this. But the accomplishments of China up until it closed immediately after admiral Zheng He's voyages are very impressive. One still wonders why China closed right at the moment that the Portuguese were beginning to build European Empires and such a vastly racist way. Maybe the world would be a very different place and that not happened.