Four Great Inventions
Read this article to learn about the origins of China's great inventions, which include the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing. After reading about China's role in inventing each of these, feel free to search for articles about each specific invention for more history of the use and development of these tools.
Cultural Influence
Dancing boxes representing movable-type printing blocks at the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
In 2005, the Hong Kong postal service created a special stamp issue that featured the Four Great Inventions. The stamp series was first issued on August 18, 2005 during a ceremony where an enlarged first day cover was stamped. Allan Chiang (Postmaster General) and Prof. Chu Ching-wu (President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) marked the issue of the special stamps by personally stamping the first day cover.
The Four Great Inventions was featured as one of the main themes of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Paper making was represented with a dance and an ink drawing on a huge piece of paper, printing by a set of dancing printing blocks, a replica of an ancient compass was showcased, and gunpowder by the extensive firework displays during the ceremony. A survey by the Beijing Social Facts & Public Opinion Survey Center found that Beijing residents found the program on the Four Great Inventions the most moving part of the opening ceremony.