# Super Personas **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788 "2014-07-10T20:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/21 "2014-07-11T16:43:26Z")
Oops, should’ve gone with Florence Nightingale. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/22 "2014-07-11T17:20:51Z")
Jacques Cousteau Bill Gates Charles Manson ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/23 "2014-07-11T20:13:02Z")
Religious leaders, yes; astronauts and cosmonauts, yes, probably. Other than that, really not that many people, I think? > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Dalai Lama Politician. The leader of his country until the Chinese invasion. Speaking of China: I don’t think the average Chinese person would have heard of Charlie Manson, Jacques Cousteau, Florence Nightingale, Lewis and Clark, Robert Baden-Powell or Helen Keller. However, I’ve heard it said that for the longest time, the best-known non-Chinese person in China was - are you sitting down? - [Jan Ove Waldner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Ove_Waldner). A Swedish table tennis player. Whoudathunkit, right? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/24 "2014-07-11T20:20:39Z")
Superman. Sherlock Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/25 "2014-07-11T23:56:02Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > …Speaking of China: I don’t think the average Chinese person would have heard of Charlie Manson, Jacques Cousteau, Florence Nightingale, Lewis and Clark, Robert Baden-Powell or Helen Keller. > > However, I’ve heard it said that for the longest time, the best-known non-Chinese person in China was - are you sitting down? - [Jan Ove Waldner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Ove_Waldner). A Swedish table tennis player. Whoudathunkit, right? Hmm… I think Canadian doctor [Norman Bethune](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bethune) more appropriately fills this role. > [@](#): > > Dr. Bethune effectively brought modern medicine to rural China and often treated sick villagers as much as wounded soldiers. His selfless commitment to the Chinese people made such an impression on Mao Zedong that generations of Chinese students were required to memorise the Chairman’s eulogy to him.[1] > > …Statues in his honour can be found in cities throughout China. I’d never heard of Doctor Bethune until a Chinese colleague of mine brought him up in conversation and told me how famous he was in China. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/26 "2014-07-12T01:46:37Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Any non-Americans who can comment on whether Lewis and Clark are well known internationally? I’ve never thought about that. > [@Leaffan](#): > > I know Lewis and Clark, but I’m right next door. I would bet that Jack the Ripper, Jesse James. Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach), Oswald, Marco Polo, and Amerigo Vespucci are also not internationally recognized. The world’s a big place. In Canada is one thing, but they’re definitely not known on this side of the world. I know a Brit here who has recently taken to reading a lot of American history, and he’s become particularly fascinated with Lewis and Clark, whom he’d never heard of before. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/27 "2014-07-14T20:03:00Z")
I don’t think Lindbergh counts for very much outside America either. When I was a kid (in Britain) I learned that the first flight across the Atlantic was by [Alcock and Brown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcock_and_Brown), _which is true_. You have to gerrymander the conditions of what counts fairly vigorously to make Lindbergh’s flight count as any sort of first (except, of course, for simply being the first _American_ to do the crossing). Sure he went solo and there were two of them. So fucking what? On the other hand, the Wright brothers probably _should_ count: a real first, and I think, internationally and widely recognized as such. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788/28 "2014-07-15T02:00:48Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I don’t think Lindbergh counts for very much outside America either. When I was a kid (in Britain) I learned that the first flight across the Atlantic was by [Alcock and Brown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcock_and_Brown), _which is true_. You have to gerrymander the conditions of what counts fairly vigorously to make Lindbergh’s flight count as any sort of first (except, of course, for simply being the first _American_ to do the crossing). Sure he went solo and there were two of them. So fucking what? “So fucking what”??😕 Are you serious? That was the whole point, being the first solo flight, and it was a big fucking deal. Sorry if it being an American offends your delicate sensibilities. EDIT: I’m mystified. Do you honestly think he was the first American to have flown across the Atlantic at all, under any circumstances? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-personas/692788.md?page=1)