how did the chinese fall behind?

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Chinese invented gunpowder but they got it to a barely useable form and then sat on it. Arabs and Europeans took it and refined them to be the awesome weapons they became.

China was always big on saying how great they were even right up until europe stomped them. It makes it really hard to tell when they actually fell behind the west since they weren't tested (colonialism) till much after the decline presumably happened.

 

[0roo0roo]

I just did some quick googling about the chinese glass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Chinese_glass

It certainly doesn't look like they limited themselves to ceramics.

yea watching qi i've seen them be pretty stupidly wrong before, so who knows. their fact checking isnt' always up to task

 

[Sonikku]

General Tso didn't want round eyes to have his sweet deep-fried chicken recipe and kept China isolated.

This.