You can read an interesting article about the Commonwealth of World Chinatowns Penang Conference, by Sebastian Lim, at the link here.
PENANG is set to host the inaugural Commonwealth of World Chinatowns (CWC) Conference from Sept 3 to 8, 2025 at the JEN Penang Georgetown by Shangri-La — an ambitious convergence of art, science, history, and culture that propels the legacy of global diasporic Chinatown communities into the future.
For more on CWC and the programme of the CWC Conference, click here and to register and get an early bird deal, click here.
A 7.5-meter (25-foot) dugout canoe was made using replicas of ancient stone tools.
Researchers have explored how early modern humans migrated by sea from Taiwan to southern Japan approximately 30,000 years ago.
To unravel the mysteries of these difficult ancient voyages, the researchers employed a unique combination of numerical simulations and experimental archaeology.
Interestingly, researchers from Japan and Taiwan, led by Professor Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo, recreated a 30,000-year-old sea crossing.
The team set out in their handmade canoe, making the entire experience as authentic as possible.
For this, a 25-foot (7.5-meter) dugout canoe was made using replicas of ancient stone tools. The canoe was paddled about 140 miles (225 kilometers) across the open ocean, connecting eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island in Japan’s Ryukyu group.
How early human populations navigated the seas between islands like Taiwan and Southern Japan has remained a captivating mystery.
“We initiated this project with simple questions: ‘How did Paleolithic people arrive at such remote islands as Okinawa?’ ‘How difficult was their journey?’ ‘And what tools and strategies did they use?’” said Kaifu.
“Archaeological evidence such as remains and artifacts can’t paint a full picture as the nature of the sea is that it washes such things away. So, we turned to the idea of experimental archaeology, in a similar vein to the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl,” the author added.
One paper used numerical simulations to test navigating the strong Kuroshio Current. The simulation revealed that skillful boat-making and navigation could overcome the Kuroshio Current even with ancient tools.
The other paper detailed the heart of their experiment: building a real boat or canoe dubbed “Sugime.” In 2019, they reportedly built a dugout canoe from a Japanese cedar trunk, using replicas of 30,000-year-old stone tools.
Paddling for 45 hours
The canoe was paddled in the Ryukyu group from eastern Taiwan to Yonaguni Island.
For over 45 hours, they navigated the open sea, often with their destination out of sight, relying solely on the sun, stars, swells, and their instincts.
The team initially theorized that ancient people used rafts for sea crossings.
However, experiments showcased that rafts were too slow and lacked the durability to work against the ocean currents. In contrast, the dugout canoe proved to be both “fast and robust.”
“We now know that these canoes are fast and durable enough to make the crossing, but that’s only half the story. Those male and female pioneers must have all been experienced paddlers with effective strategies and a strong will to explore the unknown,” said Kaifu.
“We do not think a return journey was possible. If you have a map and know the flow pattern of the Kuroshio, you can plan a return journey, but such things probably did not take place until much later in history,” Kaifu added.
The team also ran hundreds of virtual voyages using advanced ocean models to fill in the gaps that a single experiment couldn’t.
The simulations explored different starting locations, seasons, and paddling approaches, considering current and historical ocean conditions.
The research found various insights into ancient seafaring strategies: starting from northern Taiwan increased the chances of a successful crossing.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Furthermore, a key tactic was to paddle slightly southeast instead of directly towards the destination. This subtle but vital adjustment was essential for compensating against the powerful Kuroshio Current.
These findings suggest that our ancestors had a remarkably sophisticated understanding of ocean dynamics and navigation.
The findings were detailed in two papers published in the journal Science Advances on June 25.
Translated version of the press release here (Editor: Pei Gang) On 4 August 2025, the National Library of China held a donation ceremony. Renowned collectors Liu Gang and Chen Yu, along with their spouse, donated 630 types of precious ancient books, maps, and related publications – totalling 3,026 volumes (or pieces) – that they had meticulously collected and preserved over several decades, to the National Library of China without any form of compensation. This collection of literary treasures spans a vast timeframe and encompasses a wide range of subjects, with its highlights concentrated in fields such as astronomy, geography, mathematics, philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, health preservation, and metaphysics, making it of significant academic research value.
In China, there are already very few collectors who have established specialised collections of ancient texts, and collectors like Liu Gang and Chen Yu, who have built a collection system with intellectual depth, are even rarer.
Among the numerous donated items is a copy of an ancient map titled ‘Map of Tribute-Paying Nations from All Over the World.’ Since its existence and some details were first publicly disclosed by the internationally authoritative magazine The Economist in January 2006, this map has sparked sustained and intense debate within the global historical, cartographic, and Sinological communities, emerging as one of the most controversial and research-worthy ancient maps of global significance. The copy faithfully reflects the information of the original ancient map. The world outline depicted in the map, the foreign place names and customs marked, and especially the geographical information contained therein that transcends the mainstream understanding of the time, have been interpreted by some scholars as potentially challenging or supplementing existing narratives regarding the Age of Discovery, ancient Chinese worldviews, and the history of Sino-foreign exchanges.
Research into its authenticity, date of creation, information sources, and historical context has formed an important research topic in the international field of cartographic history over the past two decades. The inclusion of this copy of the ‘Map of Tribute-Paying Nations’ in the National Library of China, a national-level research institution, undoubtedly opens up new and more convenient academic channels for domestic and international scholars to conduct close-up and in-depth research into the rich historical codes and diverse cultural values it contains, and is expected to drive related research to a deeper level.
Donation ceremony The donation by Liu Gang and Chen Yu was one of the most significant and valuable private donations received by the National Library of China since 1949, particularly in the fields of ancient maps and specialised literature. This collection of precious documents has not only greatly enriched the National Library’s collection system but has also significantly expanded its holdings in areas such as the history of science and technology, the history of ideas, and the history of Sino-foreign exchanges. The National Library has included this collection in its ‘Ancient Books Special Collection’ for permanent preservation, further highlighting the unique value and profound significance of these documents. The significance of Liu Gang and Chen Yu’s donation to the National Library lies in the transformation of ‘private collections’ into ‘public assets,’ ensuring that the achievements of millennia of civilisation are preserved for future generations and benefit the public.
New archaeological evidence suggests that ancient inhabitants of the Philippines and Island Southeast Asia had the advanced plant-working technology needed for sophisticated boat building and open-sea fishing.
The ancient peoples of the Philippines and of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) may have built sophisticated boats and mastered seafaring tens of thousands of years ago—millennia before Magellan, Zheng He, and even the Polynesians.
In a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Ateneo de Manila University researchers Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik challenge the widely-held contention that technological progress during the Paleolithic only emerged in Europe and Africa.
They point out that much of ISEA was never connected to mainland Asia, neither by land bridges nor by ice sheets, yet it has yielded evidence of early human habitation. Exactly how these peoples achieved such daring ocean crossings is an enduring mystery, as organic materials like wood and fiber used for boats rarely survive in the archaeological record.
But archaeological sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste are now providing strong evidence that ancient seafarers had a technological sophistication comparable to much later civilizations.
Microscopic analysis of stone tools excavated at these sites, dating as far back as some 40,000 years ago, showed clear traces of plant processing—particularly the extraction of fibers necessary for making ropes, nets, and bindings essential for boatbuilding and open-sea fishing.
Archaeological sites in Mindoro and Timor-Leste also yielded the remains of deep ocean fish such as tuna and sharks as well as fishing implements such as fishing hooks, gorges, and net weights.Evidence of plant-working technology in ancient human habitations across Island Southeast Asia suggests that the prehistoric peoples of the Philippines and their neighbors possessed both sophisticated seacraft and advanced nautical skills. Credit: Fuentes and Pawlik, 2025
“The remains of large predatory pelagic fish in these sites indicate the capacity for advanced seafaring and knowledge of the seasonality and migration routes of those fish species,” the researchers said in their paper. Meanwhile, the discovery of fishing implements “indicates the need for strong and well-crafted cordage for ropes and fishing lines to catch the marine fauna.”
This body of evidence points to the likelihood that these ancient seafarers built sophisticated boats out of organic composite materials held together with plant-based ropes and also used the same rope technology for open-sea fishing.
If so, then prehistoric migrations across ISEA were not undertaken by mere passive sea drifters on flimsy bamboo rafts but by highly skilled navigators equipped with the knowledge and technology to travel vast distances and to remote islands over deep waters.
Several years of fieldwork on Ilin Island, Occidental Mindoro, inspired the researchers to think of this topic and to test this hypothesis. Together with naval architects from the University of Cebu, they recently started the First Long-Distance Open-Sea Watercrafts (FLOW) Project with the aim of testing raw materials that were probably used in the past, and to design and test scaled-down seacraft models.
The presence of such advanced maritime technology in prehistoric ISEA highlights the ingenuity of early Philippine peoples and their neighbors, whose boat-building knowledge likely made the region a center for technological innovations tens of thousands of years ago and laid the foundations for the maritime traditions that still thrive in the region today.
More information: Riczar Fuentes et al, Testing the waters: Plant working and seafaring in Pleistocene Wallacea, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2025).
