How Far West?

How far west can you go before you end up in the East? A silly question, maybe. Yet I find myself thinking that I am from the west and so it is important. I have an identity that corresponds with the idea of being a Westerner. The other day I read something written about the Southwest. This excerpt said something along the lines of coming to an untainted land. A land free from cultivated life. This in turn made me think about how we define cultivated life. Public schooling has taught me that culture originates in Europe. The Renaissance, after all, changed the history of the world. This thought got me thinking about the Chinese. In so many ways the Chinese are, and have been, ahead of the times. There are records of the Chinese trading with native people all along the western coastline; long before Louis and Clark tasted Pacific air. To take it a step farther, according to some people Columbus had studied Chinese maps and he knew exactly where he was going. These same people believe that Davinci’s work was derived from manuscripts that originated in Asia. And wasn’t Davinci the epitome of the renaissance. So really the renaissance originated in Asia; but none of that really matters because I am a western boy. The only question that seems important, and relevant to me today, is whether or not the Chinese, throughout time, have been encouraging their young men to travel west. I’ve always assumed that to travel west is natural. It is following the sun from beginning to end. East to West is like birth and death. Even shadows follow the passage of the sun. So you see, as a person that has grown up believing in the idioms of western culture, I need to know if the Chinese are heading West; or if they are coming East.