西方国家对中国荔枝的关注与引种(1570-1921)

原产我国南方地区的荔枝在中西方交流史上占有一定位置。国人对荔枝独有的文化情怀以及华南临海的区位优势,使得荔枝成为了早期来华传教士重点关注的果品之一。自1570年起,来华欧洲人不间断地以文字、绘画等形式介绍中国荔枝,至19世纪中叶已经将荔枝引种至了部分欧属殖民地。19世纪下半叶,华南地区的海外移民将荔枝引种至了澳大利亚、美国。19世纪末至1921年,在美国农业部植物引种处等机构的有力推动下,大批来华的传教士、生物学家、探险家、外交官以引种为目的,将众多中国优良荔枝品种带至了美国,夏威夷、波多黎各、佛罗里达等地的荔枝种植短期内实现了初步规模化。

From Ignorance to Successful Introduction:Chinese Lychee in Western Countries, 1570-1921

The lychee originated in southern China, and played a role in the history of exchanges between China and the west countries. Because of Chinese people's unique cultural feelings for lychee and the coastal advantages of South China, the lychee interested the earliest missionaries arriving in China. Since 1570, Europeans in China had been introducing lychee to the West in the form of writing, painting. By the middle of the 19th century, they had introduced the lychee to some European colonies successfully. In the second half of the 19th century, some overseas immigrants of south China introduced the lychee to Australia and the United States. From 1890s to 1921, under the strong impetus of the Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction Office of USDA, some missionaries, biologists, explorers and diplomats in China brought a large number of excellent Chinese lychee varieties to the United States for the purpose of introduction, and the lychee planting achieved an initial scale quickly in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Florida and other places.