As we are approaching 2006, the 600th anniversary of Zheng-Ho's first
voyage, an ad hoc committee for Zheng-Ho related activities was established
by the COAA directing board in its 2001 Summer meeting, as was first
advocated by Professor Jin Wu and COAA president Tony Liu. The committee
currently consists of Ben Chao, Wilbur Chen, Ming-Yang Su, and Dalin Zhang.
The purpose is to help coordinate and facilitate COAA effort on the USA
side, in conjunction with activities led by agencies, academia, and civil
groups in mainland China and Taiwan. A new website has been set up under
COAA
A word of caution: Chinese ping-ying uses "Zheng He", while the Yale style
in Taiwan uses "Cheng Ho". Here we tentatively use Zheng-Ho, not to
please/annoy anyone, but to be as accurate as possible. The hyphen is there
to avoid Zheng-Ho being referred to as "Mr. He" or "Mr. Ho". We welcome
comments on this matter.
A kickoff activity on the theme of Zheng-Ho was held in COAA's Spring
meeting at the xxx restaurant, where Jin Wu and Yang-Ming Su gave
insightful presentations and a lively discussion ensued. A proposal has
since been written (in Chinese) led by Ming-Yang Su (Chinese typing
supported by a COAA grant), to be used and submitted as a white-paper
defining our possible roles in upcoming activities, especially in raising
worldwide awareness of the great Chinese voyager and his great voyages
almost a century before Columbus set sail. A copy is available upon request.
Along with the COAA delegation to mainland China in June, 2001, Ming-Yang
Su went on a fact-finding trip in China, visiting many places related to
Zheng-Ho. The trip was eventful and fruitful, and the results are mixed. He
wrote a nice and interesting trip report, which has been posted on
our website. Ming-Yang is currently a visiting professor at the National
Ocean University in Taiwan, continuing to coordinate activities with the
Taiwan side.
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Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao
Head, Space Geodesy Branch, Code 926
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
phone: 301-614-6104, fax: 301-614-6099
e-mail: chao@bowie.gsfc.nasa.gov