Croatia - China

Professor Andrija Stampar (1888-1958) was our leading authority in the field of epidemiology and a pioneer in preventive medicine. After the assassination of Stjepan Radic in the Belgrade Parliament in 1928 and the dictatorship of king Alexandar he refused to enter the government of the then Yugoslavia. Since he was forcefully retired at the age of 42, he decided to go abroad, see [Lang, p 16]. As an expert of the League of Nations he spent three years (1933-1936) in China, developing the health service there. During the WW2 he was arrested by the German Nazis and kept in custody in Graz in Austria. He was one of the founders of the World Health Organization (WHO) and very active in promoting the health service in Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. He wrote the introductory declaration of the Statute of the WHO and was the first president of this organization. In 1948 Andrija Stampar was the chairman of the first WHO General Assembly in Geneva.

In 1955 he was awarded the medal of Leon Bernard, which is the most prestigious international acknowledgement in the field of social medicine. For more details see his book The first ten years of the World Health Organization, Geneva, 1958. Each year since 1993, during its Annual Conference, the Association of Schools of Public Health in Europe (ASPHER) awards the prestigious Andrija Stampar Medal to a distinguished person for excellence in the field of Public Health.

Source: Croatian Medicine

Chinese provinces visited by Andrija Štampar in 1930s as a representative of the then League of Nations

Wonderful recognition to Andrija Štampar from the Central Chinese Government as a sign of their gratitude and appreciation.

Andrija Štampar (on the right) in Lanchow, China, in 1930s, establishing public health service there.

A letter of recognition sent by the League of Nations to Andrija Stampar in 1936 for his successful work on public health and social reconstruction in China.

The above three are a part of an exhibition devoted to Andrija Štampar, organized by the Croatian State Archives from July 8th to September 9th 2008. The author of the exhibition is Melina Lučić. It is accompanied by a booklet Andrija Štampar (40 pp) issued by the Croatian State Archives.

Andrija Stampar is the father of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Charles Billich is outstanding Croatian painter born in Lovran in Istria, and since 1956 working in Australia. He is Honorary Citizen of Atlanta, Centennial Olympic City, USA, since 1996. Billich was the official artist of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix Melbourne in 1996. In 1997 he was designated the official artist of the Australian and French Olympic teams for Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.

Charles Billich
Bing Mah Yong Show
at
American Sports Art Museum

• Australian Olympic Committee Headquarters, Sydney
• International Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Selengor Turf Club Equestrian and Sports Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• United States Sports Academy
• QinShiHuang BingMa Yong Museum, X'ian, China

Source: Croatian Sports

Charles Billich's

Bing Ma Yong Terra Cotta Warrirors

Charles Billich is Croatian-Australian painter, born in Croatia,
and official painter of the 2008 Olympiad in China

More information about Charles Billich in China

Filip Grgic won gold medal at the 2007 Bejing WTF World Taekwondo Championships in male bantamweight (under 62kg) category, China. Photo from www.wtf.org.

And Tamara Boros was the best ping-pong player in the world among women of non-Chinese origin for 1998 and 1999 (ranked 13th, the first 12 places being occupied by Chinese players, as well as many places after Tamara). She is famous for her attractive offensive style.

She was the winner of the 2002 TOP 12 European ping-pong competition in Rotterdam. After this success she was placed second (!) on the world rank. She won the third place at the World Championship in Paris in 2003, which is the greatest success of Croatian (and European!) table tennis for women.

She also won the 2006 Europe TOP 12 competition in Copenhagen.

Tamara is the only one in Europe capable to cope with ping-pong players from Asia (China, Japan, etc.). In 2006 she has been invited to China to play table tennis in their professional league, which is the strongest one in the world.

Among the most outstanding Croatian sportsmen was Dragutin Surbek (table tennis), who had won hundreds of tournaments, from Tokyo and Beijing to Zagreb (37 medals from european and world championships!). In China he is known under the nickname Surbeka, treated as table tennis God there, and in Croatia as Surba.

The famed scientist (biologist) and table tennis player, Professor Zarko Dolinar, who captured eight gold medals at world championship competitions. Dr. Dolinar still holds an unusual world record. He is the only athlete in the world who was a world champion as well as a doctor of science. He was former World Doubles Champion and had a prestigious position of ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) Sports Science Committee head. It is interesting that he taught John Lennon to play table tennis (information by Nenad Bach). In China he was invited to have dinner with president Mao Tse Tung, together with R. Nixon, president of the USA (information by Nenad Bach).

Marijan Matijevic in 1899, at the age of 21.
Many thanks to Andreja Malovoz, Zupanja, for her kind help.

Outstanding Croatian wrestler ("Junak iz Like" - Hero from Lika) was Marijan Matijevic (1878-1951). Matijevic traveled throughout the world to exhibit his extraordinary physical power (bending metal rods, stone breaking), including China and Japan. He is known to have surpassed Primo Carnera from Italy. Buried in the town of Zupanja near Danube. He is known for his numerous humanitarian public performances. Matijevic was enormously popular, which can be seen from thousands of articles published throughout the world in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and other languages. Once in the USA, when he was once introduced as an "Austrian athlete", he hastened to correct the announcer: "Dear gentlemen, I am not Austrian, I am Croatian born in proud Lika...".

Source: Croatian Sports

Josip Mikulec, a famous Croatian adventurer and hiker, travelled the whole world in the course of 28 years. He visited also China. Mikulec collected more than 30,000 autographs of world-famous people.

A famous Chinese gymnastics champion Li Ning, who carried the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of 2008 Bejing Olympics, started his spectacular international career in Zagreb, Croatia, at the age of 17. Recruited at 17 by the national team, Li snatched six gold medals at the Zagreb World Cup in October 1982. Source.

Dolls

The King of Dolls, a famous Croatian collector of dolls representing various countries and cultures throughout the world, received upon his request a doll from Mao Tse Tung, president of China, in 1966. The doll is kept in the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, among more than 300 other dolls.

Ivana Brlic Mazuranic (1874-1938) is a very well known name among Croatian children. She wrote beautiful books of Croatian fairy tales, the most famous being Price iz davnine (Tales of Long Ago) that appeared in Zagreb in 1916. It was translated from Croatian into English by F.S. Copeland under the title:

Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Iv. Berlic Mazuranic

and published in 1924. in London by George Alen & Unwin Ltd (260 pp, hardcover). These stories have become popular worldwide due to recent fantastic flash-art presentations, initiated by Helena Bulaja, Zagreb. See for example Neva, music and animation by Ed Beals. Books of Ivana Brlic Mazuranic were translated into all major world languages (more information in Croatian). Except in English, there exist also translations into

• Swedish (Stockholm, 1928)
• Danish (Kopenhagen, 1929/30)
• Czech (Prague, 1930)
• Russian (Zagreb [!], Skazki davnyago vremeni, 1930)
• Slovakian (T. sv. Martin, 1931)
• German (Salzburg, 1933)
• ...
• Chinese (1957)

Source: Croatian Art

Science

Vilim Feller as a student at the University of Zagreb
with kind permission of prof. Marta Zdenkovic, Zagreb

William Feller (Zagreb, July 7th, 1906 - New York, January 14th, 1970), outstanding Croatian - American mathematician, born in Croatia as Vilibald Srecko Feller. As a student he changed the name to Vilim. Graduated in mathematics from the University of Zagreb (1925), earned his PhD in Göttingen (1926) under Richard Courant. He prepared a part of his thesis already as a student in Zagreb. Professor in Kiel (Germany, 1928-1933), Copenhagen (Denmark, 1933-1934), Stockholm, and Lund (Sweden, 1934-1939). In 1938 he married Clara Nielsen. Since 1939 lived in the USA, employed at Universities of Brown, Cornell, and since 1950 at Princeton University as a Eugen Higgins Professor of mathematics. Feller wrote the review of A.N. Kolmogorov's famous book Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung for Zentralblatt für Mathematik in 1934. One of initiators of editing Mathematical Reviews (1939), and one of its first executive directors (1944-1945). One of the founders of Probability Theory as a scientific discipline, best known for his two volume monograph An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, which is considered as one of the finest mathematical textbooks of the 20th century. It was translated into Russian (with foreword to Volume 1 written by Kolmogorov), Chinese, Spanish, Polish, and Hungarian. About hundred and fifty mathematical notions bear his name: Feller process, Feller transition function, Feller semigroup, Feller's property, Feller Brownian motions, Feller's test for explosions, Lindeberg-Feller condition, Feller operator, Feller potential, Feller measures, indefinite Krein-Feller differential operators, Kolmogorov-Feller equation, etc. At the International Congress of Mathematicians held in 1958 in Edinburgh, Feller delivered a plenary talk "Some new connections between probability and classical analysis." In 1966 he was elected to the international scientific committee which had to choose candidates for the 1966 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Moscow. Feller had 17 PhD students. Member of several national academies: former Yugoslav (now Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, USA, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, and of prestigeous scientific organizations: Royal Statistical Society, London, and The London Mathematical Society (honorary member). Recipient of the 1969 National Medal of Science by the president of the USA (posthumously in 1970). An asteroid was named after him in 1996: 21276 Feller (1996 TF5).

Chinese edition

Feller, William K'ai-lü-lun chi ch'i yin-yung. Ts'e I. (Chinese) [Probability theory and its applications. Vol. I] Translated from the English by Hu Ti-ho and Lin Hsiang-ching Science Press, Peking 1964. xii+253 pp.

William Feller
(in Chinese, from the 1964 Chinese edition of Volume 1)

Many thanks to Professors Sibe and Pavao Mardesic for the above pages of Feller's book in Chinese, 1964, kept in the Library of the School of Mathematical Sciences in Beijing. The 1964 edition has been printed in 9,600 copies, and subsequent Chinese editions seem to exist:

Photo from Book.ChinaUnix.net

The second volume of Feller's monograph has been issued in Chinese in 2007:

William Feller: An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Volume 2, Chinese edition, 612 pp, ISBN 978-7-115-16735-4, source www.turingbook.com

Source: William Feller

One of our best theoretical physicists was Gaja Alaga (1924-1988), member of the Croatian Nobility from Backa and Bunjevci Croat.

Professor Gaja Alaga on the left, a member of Croatian Nobility. Source www.knjiznica.phy.hr

He worked not only in Zagreb, but also at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Berkeley, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich etc. In 1955, in cooperation with K. Alder from Switzerland, A. Bohr from Denmark and B. Mottelson from the USA, he discovered the so called K-selection rules and intensity rules for beta and gamma transitions in deformed nuclei.

Warm reception of professor Gaja Alaga in China. Source www.knjiznica.phy.hr

Around 1740 Franz or Franz-Luka Jelacic, born in 1720 in Vienna, died in Moscow after 1776. He demanaged to St. Petersburg in Russia, where he studied medicine and earned his diploma in 1743. As an expert in medicine he participated in three expeditions in China (1747, 1754-1756 et 1757-1764). In 1756 this Croat was the principal surgeon in the Moscow hospital, and in 1764 he worked as a surgeon in St. Petersburg.

Source: Jelacic's in Russia (written in French), by Michelle Iellatchitch, France, translated from French by D.Ž.

THE RUSSIAN BRANCH OF OUR JELACIC'S
Written by STJEPAN RADIC
Hrvatsko Kolo, Zagreb, 1909, p. 278-304.

The name of this Jelacic was Franjo Luka, and he was educated at Viennese Jesuits, from where he escaped to Russia. One of his descendants, Franjo Josipovic Jelacic, was a famous surgeon (1808-1888) and as a university professor of Kazan has a great merit for founding the Kazan clinic, as we learn from the same encyclopedia.

As soon as this Franjo Jelacic married with a Pravoslav Russian, he accepted pravoslav faith (according to the laws of the time), and until that time our Jelacic's were Catholics. The son of Franjo - Aleksandar Francevic Jelacic, was a famous lawyer and the head of exceptionally respected and educated family of Russian Jelacic's. He had five grown up sons, and two of them were distinguished with their literary and educational work.

Russian Jelacic's preserved their Croatian traditions, and they are especially proud of their famous ban [viceroy] Jelacic. They sojourned already in Opatija, and also visited Zagreb, and of course, the Jelacic monument [on the Zagreb main square] in the first place. Aleksandar Jelacic is a liberal of English character, as was the case with almost all Russian thinkers in the 60s of the last [19th] century. Their sons belong to different political camps, but all of them are very important and extraordinarily educated people.

...

Source: Stjepan Radic, translated from Croatian by D.Ž.

MARKO POLO - KORCULA

SUMMARY
ETNIC ORIGIN OF THE EXPLORERS POLs (alias POLO-s)

Andjelko Nedo Paveškovic, Montecarlo
(Unfortunately only summary of this excellent work is available in English.)

Can the explorers POL-s (alias Polo and Pollo) be called "The Venetian Polos"?

- contrary to the Venetian documents, which say that they "came from Dalmatia", a Croatian maritime province. CHRONICON IUSTINIANI, 1358 (annotation) in the Venetian Bibliotheca Marciana. The Venetian manuscripts from: 1423., 1446., 1450/60., and the two documnets from the beginning of the 1600-ies.

The Venetian chronicler Marino Sanudo junior writes to that effect in 1522.: "Poli di Dalmatia". See A. C. Moule: MARCO POLO, THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD (London, 1938), 17, 19, 20.

A. C. Moule says: "None of the large number of Venetian genealogies which we have been able to consult seems explicitly to recognize more than one family of Polo, namely "Polo di Dalmatia". Moule, 20.

Giovanni Orlandini, the Venetian authority on our subject writes in 1926., that the genealogy of the Polos is not "chiara" (clear). He asserts that their generalogy is traceable in Venice as from the middle of the XIIIth century. He believes that the Polos had been gradually comming from the Near East ports and settling, after the year 1261., in Venice in the consequence of the downfall of the Near East latin Empire. See G. Orlandini "Marco Polo e la sua familia" in ARHIVIO VENETO TRIDENTINO, vol. IX. 1926., 1-68, especiall pp.: 1-3.

A. C. Moule contends that the Pols genealogy can be traced in Venice, starting from the middle of the XIVth century. Moule, 20.

Marco Polo the elder writes in his Last Will (Venice, 1280.) that he came from Constantinople. As quoted by moule, 523-524.

His brothers, the merchant-travellers Maffeu and Nicolau fetched in 1250. the merchandise from Venice to Constantinople. They sejourned in the Black Sea area from then untill the year 1261. In 1261. They went to Asia and came back in 1269. In 1271., they went from Venice to Asia. Marc Pol the junior the son of Nicolau, (the author of the book), accompanied them on their second journey. (He was born in 1254., and died in 1324.).

They returned from Asia in 1295. Then they (definately) settled in Venice.

According to Vladimir DePolo, some Croatian manuscripts do mention: "The merchants, shipbuilders, travelers,... (etc) POLOS from Dalmatia, in the Near East ports including Constantinople. (The research paper published in Zagreb 1996. in the collection of the research works, entitled: MARKO POLO and THE EASTERN ADRIATIC IN THE XIIITH CENTURY).

Conclusion
By their family roots comming from Croatia, the explorers Pols settled in Venice, after they had accomplished their historic explorations. Therefore they are misidentified as the "Venetian Polos".

(One Marco Polo was in the year 1300., among the rebels against the Venetian authorities, who condemned them to exile and then to death. Then the rebels flew to Croatia. Some writers believe that the said Marco Polo-rebel, was is fact the explorer Marc Pol himself.).

Andelko (Nedo) Paveškovic: Putopisac Marko Polo, POLJICA, br. 23, 38-66, Split 1998.
Source: www.ikorcula.net/marcopolo

A 14th century document linking Marco Polo with Dalmatia

A copy of the 14th century British Museum Additional MS 12475 linking Marco Polo with Dalmatia. Line against shield with 4 birds "(P)olo, questi veneron orrigamente de dalmatia". Polo, this man originally came from Dalmatia.

Document is presented to the Marco Polo Centre Korcula - Croatia on Sept. 7th 1998 by James A. Gilman on behalf of Europa-Youth.

Source: www.ikorcula.net/marcopolo

Marko Polo - turisticki simbol Korcule

Najveci putnik svih vremena, Marko Polo rodio se, prema mnogim ozbiljnim izvorima (ukljucujuci i Enciclopediu Britannicu – najnovije izdanje iz 2003. g.), u Korculi 8. sijecnja 1254. godine.

Kao djecak od 17 godina otišao je sa svojim ocem Nikolom i stricem Matom, poznatim trgovcima, na veliko putovanje po Putu svile stigavši do dvora mocnoga mongolskoga vladara Kublai Khana. Svojim izgledom i inteligencijom zadivio je tadašnjega najmocnijega vladara na svijetu i on ga je primio u mongolsku diplomatsku službu u kojoj je postigao zavidne rezultate. Polovi su se vratili u Europu 1295. godine i živjeli su u Veneciji gdje su se i dalje bavili trgovinom iako su se vec obogatili na svom dugogodišnjem putovanju po Dalekom Istoku.

Marko Polo 7. rujna 1298. g. kao zapovjednik mletacke galije, sudjeluje u najvecoj pomorskoj bitci srednjega vijeka, onoj izmedu Venecije i Genove, koja se zbila pred Korculom. U tom okrutnom pomorskom boju 7000 Mlecana je poginulo, a 7400 zarobljeno, cime je Venecija doživjela poraz od kojega ce se dugo oporavljati. Medu zarobljenicima bio je i Korculanin Marko Polo, koji je, nakon cetiri dana u korculanskoj tamnici, proveo godinu dana u denovskom zarobljeništvu. Tamo je diktirao svoje pustolovine i doživljaje u Kini svome zatvorskom sudrugu, Rustichianu da Pisi na francuskom provansalskom jeziku. Tako je nastala poznata putopisna knjiga pod naslovom TCuda svijetat, koja je tiskana na pergamentu u nekoliko desetaka primjeraka jer tada u Europi još nije bio izumljen papir.

Ta Polova knjiga otkrila je tada zaostaloj Europi jednu razvijenu i mocnu kinesku civilizaciju, a mnoga Markova zapažanja o stvarima i pojavama u Kini doimala su se kao razigrana mašta talentiranoga pisca. On je u noj, izmedu ostaloga, govorio o gradu Kinsai s 10000 mostova i grijanim ulicama s bajkovitim palacama i vrtovima, o sustavu pošta konjskom zapregom koja je izuzetno djelotvorno funkcionirala, o papirnatom novcu, o nafti kao izvoru energije, o cudotvornim ljekovitim travama, o bogatim tkaninama svih vrsta, boja i desena, nalazištima zlata i dijamanata, mirodijama, neobicnim životinjama, tehnikama ratovanja i vladanja, suzbijanju inflacije i krivotvorenja pomocu neizbrisivoga kraljevskoga žiga – o stvarima o kojima Europa nije mogla ni sanjati.

Markova knjiga, TCuda svijetat, citala se na kraljevskim dvorovima i u plemickim palacama s velikim užitkom i zanimanjem, a danas se smatra najvecim putopisom u svjetskoj književnosti. Na talijanskom je dobila naslov Il millione (Milijun), vjerojatno zbog velikih brojki kojima je Marko opisivao svoje doživljaje, a na engleskom The Travels of Marco Polo (Putovanja Marka Pola). Ona je poslužila i kao predložak za brojne moderne romane (Colerus, Jennings, Sharp, Griffiths) igrokaze, opere, filmove i mjuzikle (Duka).

Na samrtnoj postelji Marka Pola pitali se njegovi prijatelji zbog cega je napisao i ispricao toliko neistina, a on im je kratko odgovorio:
TNisam napisao ni pola od onoga što sam vidio i doživio jer sam znao da mi necete vjerovati.t
Marko Polo postao je legenda Korcule i njezin najprepoznatljiviji imidž. O njemu, kao Korculaninu, pišu brojne revije i novine, snimaju se dokumentarni filmovi (film TPovijesna bitka Marka Polat u režiji Balda Cupica dobio je prvu nagradu na festivalu svjetskih dokumentarnih filmova u New Yorku 2001. godine).

Turisticka zajednica Grada Korcule osnovala je TMedunarodni centar Marko Polot za istraživanje i promicanje života i djela toga prvoga turiste i covjeka koji je bio daleko ispred svoga vremena i koji je živio najzanimljivijim mogucim životom.

Kuca Marka Pola

Source: www.ikorcula.net/marcopolo

Source for the entire collection above: www.ikorcula.net/marcopolo

Presentation of the Veliki Tabor Castle on the north of Croatia in Chinese language

Chinese and Croatian postage stamps

Two very nice postage stamps have been issued by Croatian Post on the occasion of 15 years since establishing diplomatic relations between the China and Croatia (1992-2007). Both stamps have been designed by Boris Ljubicic, one of the best Croatian designers.

Source: Croatian Post
Here the name of Croatia is written in Chinese characters.

Source: Croatian Post
Here the name of China (Kina) is written in Croatian Glagolitic characters.

Coratian Post: Olympic Games, Beijing 2008

croatian.cri.cn

Nika, a young Croatian fan from China, collaborator of croatian.cri.cn,
with a hat bearing the inscription HRVATSKA (Croatia),
and with colors of the Croatian Coat of Arms

China Radio International (CRI) in Croatian langauge

Solemn reception in Zagreb
organized by CRI and the Croatian Embassy in Zagreb, on the occasion of launching croatian.cri.cn

Chinese Embassy in Croatia

Croatian Embassy in China

Martina Zubcic (feather category, under 57 kg, on the left) and Sandra Saric (under 67 kg) won bronze medals in taekwondo at the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games.

Darko Kralj won gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paraolympic Games in China. Competing in Men's Shot Put he broke a new world record at the National Stadium known as Bird's Nest. He said: "My biggest wish was to listen to the Croatian anthem in Beijing." Mr. Kralj lost his left leg during the Serbian aggression on Croatia. Photos by Xinhua.

Antonia Balek two gold medals for Croatia at the 2008 Paraolympic Games in China. The first gold medal has been won in women's javelin, and the second in women's Shot Put, both with new world records. The competition was held in the National Stadium known as Bird's Nest in front of 85,000 spectators. Antonia survived a deep coma which lasted for 3 years. Photos by Getty Images.

Branimir Budetic celebrates with his mother after finishing second during the final of the men's javelin F11-12 classification event at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing on September 10, 2008. Photos by Getty Images.

Snjezana Pejcic won bronze medal at the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games in women's shooting (10m air rifle, 40 shots).

Filip Ude won silver medal in pommel horse at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was the first gymnastics medal for Croatia on Olympic Games.

Blanka Vlasic celebrating her victory with Croatian flag in her hands,
at the World Championship in Athletics, Osaka 2007, source CROWN

In 2008, at the Bejing Olympic Games, Blanka Vlasic had a great international success: she won silver medal. Before that she had as many as 34 consecutive wins at international competitions in the course of 14 months.Source: Croatian Sports

Kineske izreke i priče - Chinese sayings and stories, translated from Chinese into Croatian by prof.dr. Vladimir Ćepulić, Zagreb

Croatia - Austria

Croatia - France

Croatia - Great Britain

Croatia - Russia

Croatia - Japan

Croatia - its History, Culture and Science