A wise man from the West

Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was a pioneering expat who compiled the first European-Chinese dictionary, by inventing a system of Romanization and adding tones, and created the first European-style map of the world in Chinese known as the Impossible Black Tulip.

Ricci was sent to Zhaoqing in 1583 and lived in China until his death 400 years ago this month, at the age of 58. He became an advisor to the imperial court and was the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City.

He introduced Western-style clocks that so fascinated the Emperor Wanli (1563-1620) he would stare at his for hours on end waiting for it to chime, and developed China's understanding of astronomy after he accurately predicted an eclipse.