Lecturer at Prestigious Chinese University Claims Western Ancient History Was Invented to Belittle China

• A lecturer at Zhejiang University claims the ancient histories of India, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Egypt were all invented to demean China.
• He claims, without proof, the Pyramids of Giza are fakes made of concrete.
• The suggestion that China is “the oldest civilisation on earth” has long been contentious, with Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies both believed to be over 10,000 years old.

Chinese history has become a controversial subject recently. Does China have a historical claim over the South China Sea? Is kimchi a traditional Chinese dish, or is it Korean? Is China the oldest civilisation on earth? Netizens and academics alike have flared discussions on these very questions.

One professor at Zhejiang University has made potentially the boldest addition to this discussion yet. Huang Heqing has claimed China is not only the oldest civilisation on earth but also that many other ancient civilisations are fictitious.

Huang Heqing has stated in a series of online lectures that the Ancient societies in Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India are 19th-century fictions. He claims that the Western World invented these societies after becoming jealous of China’s grand history. The West, he asserts, has spent vast amounts of money on building pretend ancient monuments.

Huang in his lecture

The Parthenon and the Pyramids of Giza have been the specific target of Huang. He states that the Pyramids are made of concrete and were built after 1700 AD. He says a series of western academics have evidence supporting his claims, though he fails to provide their names, or their evidence.

The Parthenon

Huang isn’t new to making outlandish claims about western history. Huang also contributed an introduction to a book by Zhu Youzhi called The Fictitious History of Western Civilization: Research on the Ancient and Modern West Copying China. The book also makes a series of brash assertions. Arguing that Europe was a primitive place until the arrival of Chinese influence. Zhu claims that China taught Europe the ways of democracy, science, economics, written language, and philosophy. Again, this book states that Europeans then faked their history to demean China.

The Fictitious History of Western Civilization: Research on the Ancient and Modern West Copying China book by Zhu Youzhi

Taiwan News reported that Zhai Du Gangjian and Dong Binsheng also authored books claiming that Ancient Mediterranean history is fictitious. They suggest that civilisation originated in China and spread west. Stating that ancient civilisations in Europe and the Middle Eastern world were, in fact, Chinese civilisations that moved west. Dong points out The Renaissance was, in his mind, a result of Chinese influence on Europe.

In 2019 a group of Chinese scholars called The World Civilisation Research Association, which includes Zhai Du Gangjian, claimed the English language was a ‘dialect’ of Mandarin. Zhai also stated that “Before the 15th and 16th centuries, Europe had no history, only myths and legends … Europe was a primitive society before the Middle Ages”. The World Civilisation Research Association claimed, like Huang Heqing, that all ancient relics around the Mediterranean are modern fakes.

These claims have no basis in reality, and could easily be dismissed as strange conspiracy theories. However, Huang is a lecturer at China’s third-ranking university and was even educated at the world-famous Sorbonne. Ultra-nationalistic history is not new, especially in China. However, claims that the west invented the history of every nation outside of China to counter China’s rich history is a particularly ridiculous turn for the debate to have taken. It is also worth highlighting that racist influence exists in the idea that North African, Indian, and Middle Eastern civilisations could not be advanced without Chinese help.