Marco Polo: The Chinese Mystery Revealed
"Marco Polo: The Chinese Mystery Revealed"
By: Nat Geo, 2004
With Mike Yamashita
Runtime: 1 Hour, 10 mins.
I'm going to take a break today from "The History of Weapons" series, just to break it up a bit (and so I can get the rest of the parts written, ha!) So I'm going be taking a look at Nat Geo's "Marco Polo: The Chinese Mystery Revealed." With a run-time of an hour and ten minutes, it covers a lot of ground. Quite literally. It follows Nat Geo photographer Michael Yamashita from the rumored Venice home of Marco Polo, all the way to the walls of the forbidden City, where Marco Polo ingratiated himself to the aristocracy of the day.
Supposedly a first-hand account of the travels of Marco Polo himself, many historians wonder if the story wasn't a conglomeration of stories from several traders, if Marco even made the journey himself, or for some; if Marco even existed outside the mind of the writer of the enigmatic tome. Michael, from the outset, decides that he's going to go on the assertion that Marco did exist and the book was his lifes work. Setting off on that footing, Michael tries to explain why some of the things you'd think he'd mention, had he really went: foot binding, chopsticks, The Great Wall, Silk production, Tea, etc; are conspicuously absent from the book. Copy of the book in hand, he sets off on his journey of discovery.
As he traverses the Caucasus Mountains, he encounters one of the first local peoples that Marco encountered, the nomads of the steppe. Michael, in this scene goes hardcore cringe. You see, Marco documented their tradition of sharing the wives and daughters with travelers, in which he desperately tries to enact this time-honored tradition by hitting on a sixteen year old. You can try to write it off as a crass joke, but his insistence that it should be honored today, and hearing his sour narration that he didn't get the opportunity, is evident in spades. Fortunately, this is the only odious portion of the documentary, with him quickly moving on after being rejected.
As he continues, he finally crosses the desert that leads to the more hospitable places in the country. He stops at the last (or first, depending on which way you're traveling) town that's on the edge of the desert. He seeks out older women who have their feet bound, (despite the practice being banned) and discusses the way Marco describes the way the women walk, in the daintiest steps, which is exactly how those with bound feet move. Even back then when it wasn't frowned upon, the process of foot binding was highly guarded by women; in other words, he wouldn't have seen it explicitly on display, only the end result, which WAS recorded by Marco in the women's gait.
Then into the farming lands of China where he witnesses silk wool production for the first time. He notes that back in Marco's time the "secret" of silk production was a state guarded secret; punishable by death if you were to assist a foreigner in learning how it was done, as it was China's most valuable export; worth literally more than its weight in gold. As he passes through the desert on his way to his next destination, Mike notes that the "Great Wall" in the desert was mere rubble of mud brick and straw, only a meter or so high and thick, so seeing this, he decides that the construction wouldn't have inspired awe or even counted as a blip on Marco's proverbial radar.
Then into the Forbidden City, where Marco was entranced by the "Dragon Bridge," which he described at length. Many scholars point out that he got the number of arches wrong, along with the amount of lion decorations, which, seeing as he supposedly wrote the book twenty three years after the fact, Mike wonders if it wasn't that he didn't actually see it and just forgot some of the exact specs of the thing. It's clear that it IS the bridge he described, however improperly.
Then on to the province that Marco was supposedly granted an honorary governorship over for some thirteen years. The people who live there today are firm in the belief that Marco was there, but Historians point out that the Chinese were meticulous records keepers and Marco was never once mentioned. Mike offers up the explanation that honorary titles often weren't recorded, and subsequent emperors often had records burned so they could retroactively insert themselves into the great moments in China's history.
At the end of his Journey, Michael wonders aloud if Marco really did make it, and his answer is a firm yes. But he doesn't suggest you should take his word for it. He's only presenting another possible explanation as to why some of the most important cultural legacies of China were left out. Chopsticks for instance. Foreign dignitaries often brought along their own utensils for eating, so it may just be a matter of Marco not deeming their utensils all that distinct. He did describe the different regional cuisines accurately, including noodles.
Wherever they came from.
Sluuuuuurp.
I personally give this one a solid 4/5
Mike goes into a lot of conjecture, but he also gets close to the cultures and practices of the peoples he visited, and of course, the Chinese of the time and today. The cringe bit wouldn't make it past the editors room these days, (it likely would have gotten him canned, yeah, it's THAT bad) but the rest of it presents some interesting takes in the ongoing effort to separate Marco Polo, the man, away from Marco Polo the myth.
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