“China Grass”

After the beginning of Age of Discovery, Westerners noticed Ramie and fabrics made from it from China, Japan, and elsewhere, resulting in exchanges of species and commodities. Against the background of the development of modern taxonomy, relevant knowledge about Ramie was also collected. Around the time of the First Opium War, the Western powers became fully aware of the potential commercial value of Ramie, known then as “China grass”, leading to extensive introductions to this plant, its processing technology and relevant literature by foreign missionaries in China and Western Sinologists, especially Macgowan and Julien, setting off a wave of Ramie research. Thereafter, the Ramie processing industry developed rapidly into an important sector in the West. From a long-term and global historical perspective, the history of Ramie's spread to the West was a comprehensive process with progressive and iterative updates, which integrated the development of modern scientific systems, knowledge exchange and production, scientific and technological cooperation and competition between countries, and the integration of industry and research.