Of course the idea of a global family is a beautiful one, but Needham's mission to prove the scientific merits of Chinese culture could not live comfortably with the arrogant idea of Western superiority that had come down from the seventeenth century.
世界一家的理想固然美好，但他處心積慮證明中國文化在科技上的優異與優先，卻直接傷害了西方人十七世紀以來，以現代科技獨尊天下的驕傲。