Silk Roads Programme Events

Abstract

This book discussion explores how one half of Asia—the Middle East and India—attempted to comprehend the societies and cultures of the other half, from Burma to China and Japan.  Bringing to light the pioneers of inter-Asian understanding, we follow their vacillating journeys between interpretive misadventures and revelatory breakthroughs that ranged from Muslim perceptions of Buddhism and Indian accounts of Confucius to Middle Eastern Japanophilia and translations of the Quran in China.

About the speaker

Nile Green is Professor & Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at UCLA. He is a historian of the multiple globalizations of Islam and Muslims. After beginning his career as a historian of India and Pakistan, he has traced Muslim networks that connect Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and America.

Abstract

This short talk, which will be followed a conversation between the speaker and Peter Frankopan and public Q&A, will introduce themes from a short book the presenter is completing for Columbia Global Reports. That book, whose working title is Impossible Dreamers, focuses on the recent struggles of protesters in and exiles from Hong Kong and Thailand and other participants in the loose network of “Milk Tea Alliance” activists. In seeking to place the activists into historical perspective, it brings in other periods when there struggles along the Pacific Rim became entwined in complicated ways, including the early years of the twentieth century that are the focus of Underground Asia, an important recent book by Cambridge historian Tim Harper.

About the Speaker

Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine and is spending the spring of 2023 as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of a dozen books, the most recent of which are, as author, Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (Columbia Global Reports, 2020) and, as editor, The Oxford History of Modern China (OUP, 2022). He regularly writes for newspapers, magazines, and literary reviews, including the Guardian, the Atlantic, and the TLS.

Abstract

China and Iran have made headlines in recent years for their contemporary relationship, but this history of these ties remain relatively unknown. Both China and Iran claim that this relationship stretches back through thousands of years of “mutual friendship and cooperation,” a natural connection between ancient centers of civilization that was unnaturally severed by Western colonialism. This narrative is simple, straightforward, and appealing to both sides. But do they bear out in the historical record? 

About the Speaker

Dr. William Figueroa holds a PhD in History from University of Pennsylvania and is currently a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics. His research explores the political, social, economic, and intellectual history of Sino-Iranian relations. His dissertation, ‘China and the Iranian Left: Transnational Networks of Social, Cultural, and Ideological Exchange,’ explores connections between Iranian and Chinese constitutionalists, socialists, and Maoists between four revolutions, from the early 1900s to the late 1970s.

Abstract:

With the flourishing of the Silk Roads in the first centuries C.E., the two relatively independent worlds of Indo-European and East Asian medicine came into sustained conversation for the first time. This moment in history represents one of the most significant and best-documented instances of cross-cultural medical exchange in the pre-modern world, and Buddhism played a surprisingly central role in facilitating this exchange. While many sources of Indo-Sinitic medical exchange are no longer extant, a survey of medieval Chinese Buddhist texts from approximately 150-1000 C.E. finds that Indo-European medical terminology, doctrines, and metaphors were carried to China as part and parcel of the transmission of the philosophies and practices of the religion. These texts reveal that medicine and religion were intimately intertwined in medieval Asia, but they also demonstrate intriguing resonances with the globalization of Buddhism in the contemporary period.

About the Speaker:

I am a transdisciplinary scholar of health humanities who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. I have a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teach Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. The major theme in my scholarship is discovering the role of Buddhism in the global transmission and local reception of knowledge about health, disease, and the body. I approach this topic using methodologies from history, religious studies, translation studies, literary studies, and ethnography. I am continually seeking opportunities to cross disciplinary lines in publishing and presenting my work. I regularly publish writing for non-scholarly audiences and am passionate about connecting my scholarship and teaching with contemporary issues and events both within and beyond the academy. More recently, I have gotten into documentary filmmaking and podcasting as well.

Abstract:
The historical importance of the overland Silk Road connecting China, India, and other Eurasian cultures has generated much scholarly interest in the past century. On the other hand, that of the maritime routes requires further exploration, especially from a longue-durée perspective. This paper examines the role of the Maritime Silk Road connecting South China, Southeast Asia, India, and beyond from the first millennium CE, focusing on the case of aromatic trade, from which Hong Kong was named after. The spread of the exotic aromatics and the cultivation of a variety of species of Aquilaria across tropical and subtropical Asia demonstrate the robust and long-lasting connectivity between a number of Asian cultures from China to the far end of the Indian Ocean.

About the speaker:

Bill M. Mak is Director of Chinese Research Center, the ISF Academy, Fellow of the Jao Tsung-I Petit Ecole, University of Hong Kong, Research Associate of the Needham Research Institute, Senior Member of Robinson College, Cambridge University. He completed his linguistic training at McGill University (B.A. Hons.) in 1996, specialising in Sanskrit and East Asian languages. His areas of research include history of science in Asia, historical Sino-Indian cultural contact, and Buddhist philology. After he received his Ph.D. in Indian languages and literature from Peking University in 2010, he held several research and teaching positions in Hong Kong (University of Hong Kong), Germany (Hamburg University), and Japan (Kyoto University). Mak has authored over 30 academic articles in peer reviewed journals and is co-editor of Overlapping Cosmologies in Asia, published recently by Brill. He is now completing a book project titled Foreign Astral Sciences in China, from Six Dynasties to Northern Song, to be published by Routledge under the Needham Research Institute Monograph Series. 

Abstract:

This presentation will describe the unique history and economic development of Central Asia as defined by its landlocked geography. Particular attention is paid to the achievements and challenges of the post-Soviet economic and political transformation of the region, as well as its relationship with the participants in the New Great Game – Russia, China and the West – all competing for influence in Central Asia. The presentation contends that, located as it is in the geographical centre of booming Asia, and with the opportunity to become a key logistics bridge connecting the world’s largest economies, the region is well placed for rapid development. However, at the same time, Central Asian countries face a range of complex problems. In the 21st century, the Eurasian powers that encircle Central Asia look certain to become the engines of global economic growth. But how will this affect Central Asia itself? Will the region join the powerful locomotive of history, or will it remain on the sidelines?

About the speaker:

Djoomart Otorbaev is a former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic (2014–15). He also worked as a Senior Adviser in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, based in London (2006–11). He is an honorary member and invited speaker at some boards and forums on development and investment.