The Silk Road: A biography
The Silk Road, we all know it, but do you really know how to explain what it was, or is? Simple questions seem very difficult to answer. When did it start? Where did it end? Why silk, and was it really a road? If it was, then what is the Digital Silk Road, and why do we now talk about a Polar Silk Road?
Compelling, yet deeply confusing, the Silk Road has become one of the most vivid and widely known geocultural imaginaries of modern times. Indeed, as China proclaims to “revive” the Silk Roads for the 21st century, a narrative of connected histories now serves as a platform for international trade, diplomacy, and infrastructure development.
But how did this romantic depiction of pre-modern trade and exchange become so popular? What political events in the 20th century led to Xuanzang, Faxian, Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo all becoming associated with very different Silk Roads? And what made Japan transport 200 tonnes of sand from Central Asia and issue Silk Road stamps in the 1980s?
In this talk, Tim Winter will answer these and many other questions that help explain the strange but fascinating pathway the Silk Road took towards global fame, a century after the first evidence of contact between China and Rome was unearthed in the remote regions of Central Asia.
About the speaker
Tim Winter is Research Cluster Leader, Inter-Asian Engagements, and Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore. He moved to ARI from the University of Western of Australia, where he was a Professor and Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His latest books are Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (University of Chicago Press, 2019) and The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (Oxford University Press, 2022). He also collects Silk Road memorabilia.
Image: Hall III of ruined house n. XXVI, Niya Site, published in Aurel Stein, Serindia: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestana, vol. I text (1921).
Organised by the Friends of the Museums (FOM) with support from ACM
27 September 2024, 7-8 pm
ACM River Room
This lecture is free. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
