The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (OXFORD STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POLITICS)

Evocative and enigmatic, the Silk Road occupies a unique place in contemporary culture and international affairs. Across the world, it has captured the imagination as a story of camel caravans crossing desert and mountain, of precious goods moving between East and West, and of ideas, religions, and technologies migrating across land and sea. As China seeks to “revive” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century, this compelling, yet poorly understood, narrative of history now serves as a platform for building trade, diplomatic, infrastructure, and geopolitical connections. The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures is the first book to critically investigate the merits and problems of this fabled geocultural narrative of history and map out the role it plays in international affairs. Four thematic sections trace its rise to global fame as a domain of scholarship and foreign policy and as a celebration of peace and internationalism and how it created dreams of exploration and grand adventure. China’s Health Silk Road and civilizational politics are among the themes discussed that open up the Silk Roads as a space for critical enquiry. Pathbreaking in its analysis, The Silk Road; Connecting Histories and Futures presents an entirely new reading of this increasingly important concept, one that is likely to remain at the center of world affairs for decades to come. Crossing borders and topics, the book sits at the intersection of world and cultural history, international relations, and cultural theory and will be of interest to scholars and general readers alike. Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Preface 10 “The Silk Road,” The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, Australia Saturday, 15 May 1943 14 1. Introduction 16 Questions of History 17 The Long Road to Global Fame 21 Thinking Geoculturally 27 PART ONE: CONNECTING CULTURES 34 2. The Routes of Civilization 38 Searching for Antiquity 38 Plotting for Continents 41 3. Frontiers of Antiquity 49 The Rush for Manuscripts 49 Writing Grand Histories in the Aftermath of War and Revolution 56 4. Japan as Asia? 62 Japanese Civilization, Caught between East and West, Tradition and Modernity 62 Searching for Buddhist Asia 69 PART TWO: ADVENTURES INTO COSMOPOLITANISM 76 5. The Car-.tographies of Adventure 80 On Road Testing 84 6. Closed Worlds, Open Minds 94 Doors Begin to Open 100 Conclusion 104 PART THREE: A ROUTE TO PEACE? 108 7. A Divided World 112 Silk Road Diplomacy 121 8. Civilizations in Dialogue 129 A Politics of Heritage, from Roots to Routes 136 Exhibiting the Silk Road 139 The Road Becomes a Belt 143 PART FOUR: GEOPOLITICS 152 9. Metaphors of Power 156 The Return of Eurasia 163 10. Geostrategic Revivals 169 The Winds of Peace 174 Conclusion 177 PART FIVE: CONCLUSION 180 11. Silk Road Futures 182 Silk Road Internationalism 183 At the Crossroads of History 190 Appendix A: Silk Road Exhibitions 200 Appendix B: Silk Road Associations and Networks 204 Notes 206 Bibliography 238 Index 260 From the Great Game to the present, an international cultural and political biography of one of our most evocative, compelling, and poorly understood narratives of history. The Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. Yet, for much of the twentieth century the Silk Road received little attention, overshadowed by nationalism and its invented pasts, and a world dominated by conflict and Cold War standoffs. In The Silk Road , Tim Winter reveals the different paths this history of connected cultures took towards global fame, a century after the first evidence of contact between China and Europe was unearthed. He also reveals how this remarkably popular depiction of the past took hold as a platform for geopolitical ambition, a celebration of peace and cosmopolitan harmony, and created dreams of exploration and grand adventure. Winter further explores themes that reappear today as China seeks to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century. Known across the globe, the Silk Road is a concept fit for the modern world, and yet its significance and origins remain poorly understood and are the subject of much confusion. Pathbreaking in its analysis, this book presents an entirely new reading of this increasingly important concept, one that is likely to remain at the center of world affairs for decades to come. "Evocative and enigmatic, the Silk Road occupies a unique place in contemporary culture and international affairs. Across the world, it has captured the imagination as a story of camel caravans crossing desert and mountain, of precious goods moving between East and West, and of ideas, religions and technologies migrating across land and sea. As China seeks to "revive" the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century, this compelling, yet poorly understood, narrative of history now serves as a platform for building trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical connections. "The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures" is the first book to critically investigate the merits and problems of this fabled geocultural narrative of history, and map out the role it plays in international affairs. Four thematic sections trace its rise to global fame as a domain of scholarship and foreign policy, a celebration of peace and internationalism, and how it created dreams of exploration and grand adventure. China's Health Silk Road and civilizational politics are among the themes discussed that open up the Silk Roads as a space for critical enquiry"-- Provided by publisher. In 'The Silk Road', Tim Winter reveals the different paths this history of connected cultures took towards global fame, a century after the first evidence of contact between China and Rome was unearthed. He also reveals how this remarkably popular depiction of the past took hold as a platform for geopolitical ambition, a celebration of peace and cosmopolitan harmony, and created dreams of exploration and grand adventure. Winter further explores themes that reappear today as China seeks to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century