In the wake of Jan Huyghen van Lischoten’s explosive rediscovery of the trade route to India, the Dutch East India Company, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (or VOC) was formed and started sending more men to man its expanding colonies across Asia.
The VOC, the world’s first multinational corporation, played a big role in shaping Europeans perspectives of the Orient. One of the men who made China come alive in Europe was Johan Nieuhof, Steward to the Dutch Ambassador in China. After he returned to the Netherlands from the Dutch embassy in Batavia (Jakarta), Johan was appointed by the VOC to make realistic drawings of China and accurately document the journey. He left his journal and some of his drawings to Jacob van Meurs, and set out for another adventure.
The preface, written by Johan Nieuhof’s brother, Hendrik, read:
Amidst the many different places situated outside of Europe that keep their remarkable curiosities locked within their lap, even Sina, that most famous, most blessed, most fertile, and most distant part of all of Asia, has finally opened its gates for the Europeans, and is forced to exhibit those memorable secrets that the Europeans have desired for so many centuries.
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