It’s all connected: Silk Roads old and new

Jim Millward is one of the world’s leading scholars on Xinjiang and Central Asia, and the author of many books and articles, includingBeyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864, and The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford.

In this week’s Sinica Podcast, Kaiser and Jeremy talk to Jim about the myths and histories of the Silk Road and a continent’s worth of related subjects: Xi Jinping’s signature effort to revive the Silk Road through the One Belt, One Road initiative; the mythological bird associated with Central Asia known as the Dapeng (大鹏), or Roc; the argument over the connection of extremism in Xinjiang to global jihadism; the Chinese policy on ethnic minorities; and academic debates over “New Qing History” and a number of other issues that are putting Central Asia back into its formerly central place in the story of the world’s past.

This episode also features a special outro tune played by Jim and Kaiser.