A sociologist by training, much of my work centres around the cultural past as a vector of nationalism, diplomacy, geopolitics and economic development.
In both its focus and conception, much of the research on tourism remains Anglo-Western centric. ... more In both its focus and conception, much of the research on tourism remains Anglo-Western centric. The ongoing growth of Non-Western forms of travel, most notably in Asia, renders this situation unsustainable. Our understandings of 'the tourist', 'the modern tourism industry' ...
Today the Silk Road is proclaimed to be a history and heritage shared by
more than four-billion p... more Today the Silk Road is proclaimed to be a history and heritage shared by more than four-billion people, incorporating oceans and continents. Governments, museums, authors, filmmakers and heritage agencies have become adept at telling a story of pre-modern globalisation that weaves together a multitude of locations and events stretched across dozens of countries. As one of the most compelling geocultural imaginaries of the modern era, the Silk Road has become a remarkably elastic and seductive concept for heritage making; a paradigm to which a plethora of landscapes and cultural forms are being recovered and preserved, displayed and curated to tell stories of trade, exchange, friendship and cosmopolitan cultures. Through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, media projects and festivals now celebrate Silk Road cuisine, dress, craft, music, dance, or loftier ambitions of civilisational dialogue. Little attention has been paid to how this fast proliferating narrative of history is emerging as a vast platform for heritage making, museology and cultural policy. This paper takes up such themes, tracing how the concept has evolved since its invention in the late nineteenth century. This provides the foundations for more critical readings of the Silk Road as a unifying concept of heritage and history.
This review forum brings together seven critics, namely Henryk
Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, T... more This review forum brings together seven critics, namely Henryk Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, Tim Oakes, Jonathan Rigg, Alessandro Rippa, and June Wang. They have different backgrounds ranging from anthropology and geography to history and political science. This diversity is deliberate, as Geocultural Power fundamentally crosses disciplines as it weaves together cultural and heritage studies with international relations and the study of diplomacy.
The Silk Road has become one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first... more The Silk Road has become one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. Identified by two routes-maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass; regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world. Through Belt and Road, China proclaims to be 'reviving' the Silk Road for the twenty-first century; ambitions that are creating forms of diplomacy across multiple sectors and countries. To contextualise such developments, this paper examines the Silk Road's historical formation as an arena of diplomacy and international cooperation. It argues that this stylised, romanticised depiction of pre-modern globalisation came to be associated with peace and harmony, cosmopolitanism and inter-cultural dialogue after World War II. Within this, however, Silk Road diplomacy has served as a vehicle for nationalist and geopolitical ambitions. The paper argues such entanglements underpin China's Belt and Road Initiative today. ARTICLE HISTORY
Belt and Road is a project in both writing and reading history. To date, international scrutiny h... more Belt and Road is a project in both writing and reading history. To date, international scrutiny has fallen overwhelmingly on the former; how China’s grand ambitions are altering the course of events and the global power landscape of the twenty-first century. But if the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is about “reviving” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century, we might also ask how China now reads the past, and in what ways it appropriates it for strategic ends. Such lines of inquiry help us begin to understand how Belt and Road not just writes, but comes to re-write history, and it is the latter that may hold the greatest long-term impact. From the very beginning, Beijing has framed Belt and Road as a “revival” of the Silk Roads. But what this means precisely has received little critical attention in the West. Journalists and analysts have noted the Silk Road as little more than a gesture to romantic pasts of trade and exchange, where the camel trails and caravanserai of previous centuries are replaced by transcontinental rail lines and special economic zones. Sailing ships carrying porcelain become the container ships and oil tankers of the twenty-first century. History then is merely a palette of richly evocative imagery through which the old is paralleled with the new to make strategies of connectivity meaningful for audiences around the world. Countless news channels, think tanks, government reports, and academic papers have thus introduced BRI by casually summarizing the Silk Road in a short sentence or two, and rapidly moving on to the “real” stuff.
This paper examines China's Belt and Road Initiative as an exercise in geocultural power. To date... more This paper examines China's Belt and Road Initiative as an exercise in geocultural power. To date, Belt and Road has been analysed as a geopolitical and geo-economic initiative, with arguments constructed around the development of infrastructure, trade or finance agreements. This paper introduces the Silk Roads as one of the most compelling geocultural concepts of the modern era to show its strategic value as a platform for cooperation and multi-sector connec-tivity. A critical analysis of the Silk Roads provides new insights into Belt and Road, revealing how China is mobilising its geocultural potential as a civilisational state to build regional and continental connectivities.
New Book and Web platform: silkroadfutures.net, 2019
China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect continents and integrate Eurasia through collabo... more China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect continents and integrate Eurasia through collaborations spanning trade and infrastructure, culture and finance. Launched in 2013, it incorporates more than seventy countries and two-thirds of the world's population. But what does it mean to "revive" the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century? Until now Belt and Road has been discussed as a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. This book introduces geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. Tim Winter highlights how Belt and Road bundles geopolitical ambition and infrastructure with carefully curated histories to produce a grand narrative of transcontinental connectivity: past, present and future. As Iran, Greece, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malaysia and others mobilize the Silk Roads to find diplomatic and cultural connection, China becomes the new author of Eurasian history and the architect of the bridge between East and West. In a diplomatic dance of forgetting, episodes of violence and bloodshed are left behind for a language of shared heritage that crosses borders in ways that further an increasingly networked China-driven economy.
We live in an era when state power is accumulated by building structures of connectivity. Such de... more We live in an era when state power is accumulated by building structures of connectivity. Such developments will be at the heart of competition between India and China, adding to existing tensions over trade, Kashmir and terrorism. It is against this backdrop that we need to interpret Xiʼs visit to India. Both leaders put aside ‘formalʼ deals and agreements more familiar to modern state-state diplomacy, in favour of a language of cooperation built on civilization and deep cultural ties.
Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century, 2019
An evocative history of East and West embraced in cultural and economic exchange, today the Silk ... more An evocative history of East and West embraced in cultural and economic exchange, today the Silk Road is remapping international affairs.
Invented in 1877, the story of the Silk Road was overshadowed by twentieth century nationalism and a world dominated by conflict and Cold War standoffs. As China aims to “revive” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century through its Belt and Road Initiative, ideas of civilizations in dialogue, harmonious trade and cultural exchange take on new significance.
Asia’s ascendant power is framing its trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical ambitions in a story of regional, even global connectivity, at the heart of which sits Chinese civilization.
Silk Road Futures demonstrates Belt and Road is as much a geocultural project as it is geoeconomic and geopolitical.
outheast Asia's Modern Architecture: Questions of Translation, Epistemology and Power, 2019
The focus of this chapter is on antiquity and its political economies of scholarship in Southeast... more The focus of this chapter is on antiquity and its political economies of scholarship in Southeast Asia. Structures found at Angkor, Borobudur, Vat Phou, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Mỹ Sơn are critically important to our understanding of Southeast Asian history. Within scholarly accounts of the past, these ruins sit somewhat uneasily between architecture, archaeology and art history. The focus here is on the shifting landscapes of scholarship that have framed them over the last century and a half, read in relation to the broader political economies within which particular modes of knowledge production have occurred. In order to discern between an era of colonial research, the formation of expert networks in the mid twentieth century and more recent changes therein, the chapter foregrounds the idea of heritage diplomacy as its explanatory frame. Specific attention is given to Bagan in Myanmar, as it is suggested the site represents an important signpost to some likely shifts in the way Southeast Asia’s antiquity will be framed, narrated, valued and symbolically coded over the coming years. In that regard, the chapter takes up the question of futures, a theme that comes with the usual risks and caveats.
China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the ... more China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the political and economic landscapes of Eurasia and Africa over the coming decades via a network of infrastructure partnerships across the energy, telecommunications, logistics, law, IT, and transportation sectors. While such themes have become the subject of intense debate and expert commentary in the past couple of years, one of the Belt and Road’s core “Cooperation Priorities,” that of “people-to-people” connections, has passed largely unnoticed outside China. I focus here on the theme of heritage diplomacy in order to suggest that histories of silk, porcelain, and other material pasts, together with competing ideas about civilizations and world history, will play a distinct role in shaping trade, infrastructure, and security within and across countries in the coming years
This Forum evolved from a provocation by the Editors of this special issue of Fabrications that “... more This Forum evolved from a provocation by the Editors of this special issue of Fabrications that “too often heritage conservation assumes an apolitical stance by neglecting to acknowledge its own unsettling agendas.” The Forum's five contributors highlight a range of challenges and trends that architectural heritage professionals – including historians – have begun to identify and engage with in a critical fashion. These pieces demonstrate the need to commit to historical practice that embraces the “critical turn,” and to acknowledge our responsibilities as “gatekeepers” and producers of knowledge. While we cannot control the multitude of interpretations that our work will surely generate across time and space, we can consider whether we are contributing to, or challenging, existing silences, inaccuracies, and regimes of knowledge. This Forum does not claim to provide answers, but instead seeks to foster discussion and identify some of the avenues along which work in the general realm of “Architecture / Heritage / Politics” is – or should be – progressing.
The paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy in order to critically examine the links bet... more The paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy in order to critically examine the links between conservation, cultural aid and hard power, and the dance between nationalism and internationalism. Three themes - venues, cooperation, and borders - orient the discussion, opening lines of enquiry previously ignored by scholars in a variety of fields concerning the entanglements between the past and the enterprise of preserving its material culture, and our unfolding histories of globalization and international affairs.
Association of Critical Heritage Studies, 4th Biennial Conference
Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 Se... more Association of Critical Heritage Studies, 4th Biennial Conference Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 September 2018, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China Call For Sessions, Deadline 31st March, 2017
The ongoing destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State
(IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to th... more The ongoing destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to the fore a glaring paradox. On the one hand, preventing the deliberate destruction of culture now appears to hold little moral ambiguity, with such acts now regularly condemned by various governments and agencies around the world as both “war crimes” and a “ crimes against humanity.” And yet, the failure to prevent IS’s campaign of destruction is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities of culture in times of conflict, and the inability of the so-called international community to act upon the imperative to preserve. Indeed, today it appears as though the threat to cultural heritage is increasing in magnitude in accordance with the changing nature of international conflict and terrorism.........
Today the preservation and commemoration of cultural heritage in Asia occupies a complex place in... more Today the preservation and commemoration of cultural heritage in Asia occupies a complex place in an increasingly integrated and interconnected region. In comparison to ten years ago we are seeing a significant growth in the level of international hostility concerning the past and its remembrance. Histories of conflict, for example, are the source of ongoing tension in East Asia at a time of escalating militarisation. The diplomatic tensions between Japan, Korea and China concerning the events of World War 2 are being further exacerbated by the approach of museums in the region and attempts to have remnants ‒ whether it be buildings, letters or landscapes ‒ recognised by international heritage agencies. At the same time, however, we are also seeing major growth in the scale and scope of international cooperation between countries across Asia regarding the preservation of the past. Heritage conservation is fast emerging as an important component of the intra-regional economic and political ties that are binding states and populations in the region. In the coming decade one initiative in particular will take this heritage diplomacy to a whole new level, China’s One Belt One Road.
In both its focus and conception, much of the research on tourism remains Anglo-Western centric. ... more In both its focus and conception, much of the research on tourism remains Anglo-Western centric. The ongoing growth of Non-Western forms of travel, most notably in Asia, renders this situation unsustainable. Our understandings of 'the tourist', 'the modern tourism industry' ...
Today the Silk Road is proclaimed to be a history and heritage shared by
more than four-billion p... more Today the Silk Road is proclaimed to be a history and heritage shared by more than four-billion people, incorporating oceans and continents. Governments, museums, authors, filmmakers and heritage agencies have become adept at telling a story of pre-modern globalisation that weaves together a multitude of locations and events stretched across dozens of countries. As one of the most compelling geocultural imaginaries of the modern era, the Silk Road has become a remarkably elastic and seductive concept for heritage making; a paradigm to which a plethora of landscapes and cultural forms are being recovered and preserved, displayed and curated to tell stories of trade, exchange, friendship and cosmopolitan cultures. Through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, media projects and festivals now celebrate Silk Road cuisine, dress, craft, music, dance, or loftier ambitions of civilisational dialogue. Little attention has been paid to how this fast proliferating narrative of history is emerging as a vast platform for heritage making, museology and cultural policy. This paper takes up such themes, tracing how the concept has evolved since its invention in the late nineteenth century. This provides the foundations for more critical readings of the Silk Road as a unifying concept of heritage and history.
This review forum brings together seven critics, namely Henryk
Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, T... more This review forum brings together seven critics, namely Henryk Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, Tim Oakes, Jonathan Rigg, Alessandro Rippa, and June Wang. They have different backgrounds ranging from anthropology and geography to history and political science. This diversity is deliberate, as Geocultural Power fundamentally crosses disciplines as it weaves together cultural and heritage studies with international relations and the study of diplomacy.
The Silk Road has become one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first... more The Silk Road has become one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. Identified by two routes-maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass; regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world. Through Belt and Road, China proclaims to be 'reviving' the Silk Road for the twenty-first century; ambitions that are creating forms of diplomacy across multiple sectors and countries. To contextualise such developments, this paper examines the Silk Road's historical formation as an arena of diplomacy and international cooperation. It argues that this stylised, romanticised depiction of pre-modern globalisation came to be associated with peace and harmony, cosmopolitanism and inter-cultural dialogue after World War II. Within this, however, Silk Road diplomacy has served as a vehicle for nationalist and geopolitical ambitions. The paper argues such entanglements underpin China's Belt and Road Initiative today. ARTICLE HISTORY
Belt and Road is a project in both writing and reading history. To date, international scrutiny h... more Belt and Road is a project in both writing and reading history. To date, international scrutiny has fallen overwhelmingly on the former; how China’s grand ambitions are altering the course of events and the global power landscape of the twenty-first century. But if the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is about “reviving” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century, we might also ask how China now reads the past, and in what ways it appropriates it for strategic ends. Such lines of inquiry help us begin to understand how Belt and Road not just writes, but comes to re-write history, and it is the latter that may hold the greatest long-term impact. From the very beginning, Beijing has framed Belt and Road as a “revival” of the Silk Roads. But what this means precisely has received little critical attention in the West. Journalists and analysts have noted the Silk Road as little more than a gesture to romantic pasts of trade and exchange, where the camel trails and caravanserai of previous centuries are replaced by transcontinental rail lines and special economic zones. Sailing ships carrying porcelain become the container ships and oil tankers of the twenty-first century. History then is merely a palette of richly evocative imagery through which the old is paralleled with the new to make strategies of connectivity meaningful for audiences around the world. Countless news channels, think tanks, government reports, and academic papers have thus introduced BRI by casually summarizing the Silk Road in a short sentence or two, and rapidly moving on to the “real” stuff.
This paper examines China's Belt and Road Initiative as an exercise in geocultural power. To date... more This paper examines China's Belt and Road Initiative as an exercise in geocultural power. To date, Belt and Road has been analysed as a geopolitical and geo-economic initiative, with arguments constructed around the development of infrastructure, trade or finance agreements. This paper introduces the Silk Roads as one of the most compelling geocultural concepts of the modern era to show its strategic value as a platform for cooperation and multi-sector connec-tivity. A critical analysis of the Silk Roads provides new insights into Belt and Road, revealing how China is mobilising its geocultural potential as a civilisational state to build regional and continental connectivities.
New Book and Web platform: silkroadfutures.net, 2019
China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect continents and integrate Eurasia through collabo... more China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect continents and integrate Eurasia through collaborations spanning trade and infrastructure, culture and finance. Launched in 2013, it incorporates more than seventy countries and two-thirds of the world's population. But what does it mean to "revive" the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century? Until now Belt and Road has been discussed as a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. This book introduces geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. Tim Winter highlights how Belt and Road bundles geopolitical ambition and infrastructure with carefully curated histories to produce a grand narrative of transcontinental connectivity: past, present and future. As Iran, Greece, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malaysia and others mobilize the Silk Roads to find diplomatic and cultural connection, China becomes the new author of Eurasian history and the architect of the bridge between East and West. In a diplomatic dance of forgetting, episodes of violence and bloodshed are left behind for a language of shared heritage that crosses borders in ways that further an increasingly networked China-driven economy.
We live in an era when state power is accumulated by building structures of connectivity. Such de... more We live in an era when state power is accumulated by building structures of connectivity. Such developments will be at the heart of competition between India and China, adding to existing tensions over trade, Kashmir and terrorism. It is against this backdrop that we need to interpret Xiʼs visit to India. Both leaders put aside ‘formalʼ deals and agreements more familiar to modern state-state diplomacy, in favour of a language of cooperation built on civilization and deep cultural ties.
Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century, 2019
An evocative history of East and West embraced in cultural and economic exchange, today the Silk ... more An evocative history of East and West embraced in cultural and economic exchange, today the Silk Road is remapping international affairs.
Invented in 1877, the story of the Silk Road was overshadowed by twentieth century nationalism and a world dominated by conflict and Cold War standoffs. As China aims to “revive” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century through its Belt and Road Initiative, ideas of civilizations in dialogue, harmonious trade and cultural exchange take on new significance.
Asia’s ascendant power is framing its trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical ambitions in a story of regional, even global connectivity, at the heart of which sits Chinese civilization.
Silk Road Futures demonstrates Belt and Road is as much a geocultural project as it is geoeconomic and geopolitical.
outheast Asia's Modern Architecture: Questions of Translation, Epistemology and Power, 2019
The focus of this chapter is on antiquity and its political economies of scholarship in Southeast... more The focus of this chapter is on antiquity and its political economies of scholarship in Southeast Asia. Structures found at Angkor, Borobudur, Vat Phou, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Mỹ Sơn are critically important to our understanding of Southeast Asian history. Within scholarly accounts of the past, these ruins sit somewhat uneasily between architecture, archaeology and art history. The focus here is on the shifting landscapes of scholarship that have framed them over the last century and a half, read in relation to the broader political economies within which particular modes of knowledge production have occurred. In order to discern between an era of colonial research, the formation of expert networks in the mid twentieth century and more recent changes therein, the chapter foregrounds the idea of heritage diplomacy as its explanatory frame. Specific attention is given to Bagan in Myanmar, as it is suggested the site represents an important signpost to some likely shifts in the way Southeast Asia’s antiquity will be framed, narrated, valued and symbolically coded over the coming years. In that regard, the chapter takes up the question of futures, a theme that comes with the usual risks and caveats.
China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the ... more China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the political and economic landscapes of Eurasia and Africa over the coming decades via a network of infrastructure partnerships across the energy, telecommunications, logistics, law, IT, and transportation sectors. While such themes have become the subject of intense debate and expert commentary in the past couple of years, one of the Belt and Road’s core “Cooperation Priorities,” that of “people-to-people” connections, has passed largely unnoticed outside China. I focus here on the theme of heritage diplomacy in order to suggest that histories of silk, porcelain, and other material pasts, together with competing ideas about civilizations and world history, will play a distinct role in shaping trade, infrastructure, and security within and across countries in the coming years
This Forum evolved from a provocation by the Editors of this special issue of Fabrications that “... more This Forum evolved from a provocation by the Editors of this special issue of Fabrications that “too often heritage conservation assumes an apolitical stance by neglecting to acknowledge its own unsettling agendas.” The Forum's five contributors highlight a range of challenges and trends that architectural heritage professionals – including historians – have begun to identify and engage with in a critical fashion. These pieces demonstrate the need to commit to historical practice that embraces the “critical turn,” and to acknowledge our responsibilities as “gatekeepers” and producers of knowledge. While we cannot control the multitude of interpretations that our work will surely generate across time and space, we can consider whether we are contributing to, or challenging, existing silences, inaccuracies, and regimes of knowledge. This Forum does not claim to provide answers, but instead seeks to foster discussion and identify some of the avenues along which work in the general realm of “Architecture / Heritage / Politics” is – or should be – progressing.
The paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy in order to critically examine the links bet... more The paper explores the concept of heritage diplomacy in order to critically examine the links between conservation, cultural aid and hard power, and the dance between nationalism and internationalism. Three themes - venues, cooperation, and borders - orient the discussion, opening lines of enquiry previously ignored by scholars in a variety of fields concerning the entanglements between the past and the enterprise of preserving its material culture, and our unfolding histories of globalization and international affairs.
Association of Critical Heritage Studies, 4th Biennial Conference
Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 Se... more Association of Critical Heritage Studies, 4th Biennial Conference Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 September 2018, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China Call For Sessions, Deadline 31st March, 2017
The ongoing destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State
(IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to th... more The ongoing destruction of cultural heritage by Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to the fore a glaring paradox. On the one hand, preventing the deliberate destruction of culture now appears to hold little moral ambiguity, with such acts now regularly condemned by various governments and agencies around the world as both “war crimes” and a “ crimes against humanity.” And yet, the failure to prevent IS’s campaign of destruction is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities of culture in times of conflict, and the inability of the so-called international community to act upon the imperative to preserve. Indeed, today it appears as though the threat to cultural heritage is increasing in magnitude in accordance with the changing nature of international conflict and terrorism.........
Today the preservation and commemoration of cultural heritage in Asia occupies a complex place in... more Today the preservation and commemoration of cultural heritage in Asia occupies a complex place in an increasingly integrated and interconnected region. In comparison to ten years ago we are seeing a significant growth in the level of international hostility concerning the past and its remembrance. Histories of conflict, for example, are the source of ongoing tension in East Asia at a time of escalating militarisation. The diplomatic tensions between Japan, Korea and China concerning the events of World War 2 are being further exacerbated by the approach of museums in the region and attempts to have remnants ‒ whether it be buildings, letters or landscapes ‒ recognised by international heritage agencies. At the same time, however, we are also seeing major growth in the scale and scope of international cooperation between countries across Asia regarding the preservation of the past. Heritage conservation is fast emerging as an important component of the intra-regional economic and political ties that are binding states and populations in the region. In the coming decade one initiative in particular will take this heritage diplomacy to a whole new level, China’s One Belt One Road.
rom the Great Game to the present, an international cultural and political biography of one of ou... more rom 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.
This Handbook is the first major volume to examine the conservation of Asia’s culture and nature ... more This Handbook is the first major volume to examine the conservation of Asia’s culture and nature in relation to the wider social, political and economic forces shaping the region today.
Throughout Asia rapid economic and social change means the region’s heritage is at once under threat and undergoing a revival as never before. As societies look forward, competing forces ensure they re-visit the past and the inherited, with the conservation of nature and culture now driven by the broader agendas of identity politics, tradition, revival, rapid development, environmentalism and sustainability. In response to these new and important trends, the twenty three accessible chapters here go beyond sector specific analyses to examine heritage in inter-disciplinary and critically engaged terms, encompassing the natural and the cultural, the tangible and intangible. Emerging environmentalisms, urban planning, identity politics, conflict memorialization, tourism and biodiversity are among the topics covered here.
This path-breaking volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars working in the fields of heritage, tourism, archaeology, Asian studies, geography, anthropology, development, sociology, and cultural and postcolonial studies.
In 2010 Shanghai hosted the largest, most spectacular and most expensive expo ever. Attracting a ... more In 2010 Shanghai hosted the largest, most spectacular and most expensive expo ever. Attracting a staggering 73 million visitors, and costing around US$45 billion dollars, Shanghai Expo broke the record books in the history of world's fairs and universal expositions. With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, many of which face uncertain futures, this mega event confronted some of the key challenges facing humanity in the 21st Century, with its theme Better City, Better Life.
Held just two years after the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Expo was encapsulated by a moment in history defined by China’s rise as a global superpower, and by the multiple challenges associated with developing more sustainable cities. The thirteen essays here, written by a team of inter-disciplinary researchers, offer a uniquely detailed analysis of this globally significant event. Chapters examine displays of futurity and utopia, the limitations of inter-cultural dialogue, and the ways in which this mega-event reflected its geo-political and cultural moment. Substantive attention is also given to the interplay between declarations towards urban sustainability and the recent economic, demographic and socio-political trajectories of Shanghai and China more broadly.
Little more than a decade ago, Cambodia witnessed a series of rapid transitions, from civil war t... more Little more than a decade ago, Cambodia witnessed a series of rapid transitions, from civil war to peace, from a socialist-style authoritarianism to multi-party democracy, and from geographic isolation to a free-market economy. Requiring the United Nations to undertake its biggest ever peace-time operation, the elections of 1993 triggered an influx of foreign aid unparalleled in Southeast Asia. Intense international interest since then has been accompanied by a re-emerging field of scholarship that has principally sought explanations for genocide and war, or attempted to map more recent economic and political developments. The social and cultural
implications of a society that has undergone such profound change has received little scholarly examination until now.
Drawing upon multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and up-to-date empirical research, Expressions of Cambodia reveals the tensions and contradictions involved in post-conflict nation building and socio-cultural recovery. Together a team of international contributors take scholarship on the country in new directions, focusing on the politics of tradition and modernity, tourism, the performance of identity, post-conflict nation building, and the on-going renewal of ties between diaspora and home. Timely and much needed, the book brings Cambodia back into dialogue with its
neighbors and as such, makes a valuable contribution to the growing field of cultural studies in Asia. Written in an accessible style, Expressions of Cambodia will be of particular interest to those working in the fields of Asian studies, tourism, diaspora, and postcolonial and cultural studies.
Today the Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of t... more Today the Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the 21st century. A narrative of connected histories, it now operates as a platform for international trade, heritage diplomacy, infrastructure development and geopolitical ambition. Identified by two principal routes - maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass, regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world. This presentation examines how these narratives of historical connectivity and the idea of a Maritime Silk Road came about. It poses the question: Does the Maritime Silk Road stretch back millennia or is it merely an invented history less than five decades old? And if it is invented, does that matter?
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Papers by Tim Winter
more than four-billion people, incorporating oceans and continents.
Governments, museums, authors, filmmakers and heritage agencies
have become adept at telling a story of pre-modern globalisation that
weaves together a multitude of locations and events stretched across
dozens of countries. As one of the most compelling geocultural imaginaries
of the modern era, the Silk Road has become a remarkably elastic and
seductive concept for heritage making; a paradigm to which a plethora of
landscapes and cultural forms are being recovered and preserved, displayed and curated to tell stories of trade, exchange, friendship and
cosmopolitan cultures. Through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, media
projects and festivals now celebrate Silk Road cuisine, dress, craft, music, dance, or loftier ambitions of civilisational dialogue. Little attention has been paid to how this fast proliferating narrative of history is emerging as a vast platform for heritage making, museology and cultural policy. This paper takes up such themes, tracing how the concept has evolved since its invention in the late nineteenth century. This provides the foundations for more critical readings of the Silk Road as a unifying concept of heritage and history.
Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, Tim Oakes, Jonathan Rigg, Alessandro
Rippa, and June Wang. They have different backgrounds ranging from
anthropology and geography to history and political science. This diversity
is deliberate, as Geocultural Power fundamentally crosses disciplines
as it weaves together cultural and heritage studies with international
relations and the study of diplomacy.
From the very beginning, Beijing has framed Belt and Road as a “revival” of the Silk Roads. But what this means precisely has received little critical attention in the West. Journalists and analysts have noted the Silk Road as little more than a gesture to romantic pasts of trade and exchange, where the camel trails and caravanserai of previous centuries are replaced by transcontinental rail lines and special economic zones. Sailing ships carrying porcelain become the container ships and oil tankers of the twenty-first century. History then is merely a palette of richly evocative imagery through which the old is paralleled with the new to make strategies of connectivity meaningful for audiences around the world. Countless news channels, think tanks, government reports, and academic papers have thus introduced BRI by casually summarizing the Silk Road in a short sentence or two, and rapidly moving on to the “real” stuff.
Until now Belt and Road has been discussed as a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. This book introduces geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. Tim Winter highlights how Belt and Road bundles geopolitical ambition and infrastructure with carefully curated histories to produce a grand narrative of transcontinental connectivity: past, present and future.
As Iran, Greece, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malaysia and others mobilize the Silk Roads to find diplomatic and cultural connection, China becomes the new author of Eurasian history and the architect of the bridge between East and West. In a diplomatic dance of forgetting, episodes of violence and bloodshed are left behind for a language of shared heritage that crosses borders in ways that further an increasingly networked China-driven economy.
Invented in 1877, the story of the Silk Road was overshadowed by twentieth century nationalism and a world dominated by conflict and Cold War standoffs. As China aims to “revive” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century through its Belt and Road Initiative, ideas of civilizations in dialogue, harmonious trade and cultural exchange take on new significance.
Asia’s ascendant power is framing its trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical ambitions in a story of regional, even global connectivity, at the heart of which sits Chinese civilization.
Silk Road Futures demonstrates Belt and Road is as much a geocultural project as it is geoeconomic and geopolitical.
internationalism. Three themes - venues, cooperation, and borders - orient the discussion, opening lines of enquiry previously ignored by scholars in a variety of fields concerning the
entanglements between the past and the enterprise of preserving its material culture, and our unfolding histories of globalization and international affairs.
Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 September 2018,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Call For Sessions, Deadline 31st March, 2017
(IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to the fore a glaring paradox. On
the one hand, preventing the deliberate destruction of culture
now appears to hold little moral ambiguity, with such acts now
regularly condemned by various governments and agencies
around the world as both “war crimes” and a “ crimes against
humanity.” And yet, the failure to prevent IS’s campaign of destruction
is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities of culture in
times of conflict, and the inability of the so-called international
community to act upon the imperative to preserve. Indeed,
today it appears as though the threat to cultural heritage is increasing
in magnitude in accordance with the changing nature
of international conflict and terrorism.........
and populations in the region. In the coming decade one initiative in particular will take this heritage diplomacy to a whole new level, China’s One Belt One Road.
more than four-billion people, incorporating oceans and continents.
Governments, museums, authors, filmmakers and heritage agencies
have become adept at telling a story of pre-modern globalisation that
weaves together a multitude of locations and events stretched across
dozens of countries. As one of the most compelling geocultural imaginaries
of the modern era, the Silk Road has become a remarkably elastic and
seductive concept for heritage making; a paradigm to which a plethora of
landscapes and cultural forms are being recovered and preserved, displayed and curated to tell stories of trade, exchange, friendship and
cosmopolitan cultures. Through China’s Belt and Road Initiative, media
projects and festivals now celebrate Silk Road cuisine, dress, craft, music, dance, or loftier ambitions of civilisational dialogue. Little attention has been paid to how this fast proliferating narrative of history is emerging as a vast platform for heritage making, museology and cultural policy. This paper takes up such themes, tracing how the concept has evolved since its invention in the late nineteenth century. This provides the foundations for more critical readings of the Silk Road as a unifying concept of heritage and history.
Alff, Mark Frost, Marina Kaneti, Tim Oakes, Jonathan Rigg, Alessandro
Rippa, and June Wang. They have different backgrounds ranging from
anthropology and geography to history and political science. This diversity
is deliberate, as Geocultural Power fundamentally crosses disciplines
as it weaves together cultural and heritage studies with international
relations and the study of diplomacy.
From the very beginning, Beijing has framed Belt and Road as a “revival” of the Silk Roads. But what this means precisely has received little critical attention in the West. Journalists and analysts have noted the Silk Road as little more than a gesture to romantic pasts of trade and exchange, where the camel trails and caravanserai of previous centuries are replaced by transcontinental rail lines and special economic zones. Sailing ships carrying porcelain become the container ships and oil tankers of the twenty-first century. History then is merely a palette of richly evocative imagery through which the old is paralleled with the new to make strategies of connectivity meaningful for audiences around the world. Countless news channels, think tanks, government reports, and academic papers have thus introduced BRI by casually summarizing the Silk Road in a short sentence or two, and rapidly moving on to the “real” stuff.
Until now Belt and Road has been discussed as a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. This book introduces geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. Tim Winter highlights how Belt and Road bundles geopolitical ambition and infrastructure with carefully curated histories to produce a grand narrative of transcontinental connectivity: past, present and future.
As Iran, Greece, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malaysia and others mobilize the Silk Roads to find diplomatic and cultural connection, China becomes the new author of Eurasian history and the architect of the bridge between East and West. In a diplomatic dance of forgetting, episodes of violence and bloodshed are left behind for a language of shared heritage that crosses borders in ways that further an increasingly networked China-driven economy.
Invented in 1877, the story of the Silk Road was overshadowed by twentieth century nationalism and a world dominated by conflict and Cold War standoffs. As China aims to “revive” the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century through its Belt and Road Initiative, ideas of civilizations in dialogue, harmonious trade and cultural exchange take on new significance.
Asia’s ascendant power is framing its trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical ambitions in a story of regional, even global connectivity, at the heart of which sits Chinese civilization.
Silk Road Futures demonstrates Belt and Road is as much a geocultural project as it is geoeconomic and geopolitical.
internationalism. Three themes - venues, cooperation, and borders - orient the discussion, opening lines of enquiry previously ignored by scholars in a variety of fields concerning the
entanglements between the past and the enterprise of preserving its material culture, and our unfolding histories of globalization and international affairs.
Heritage Across Borders, 1-6 September 2018,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Call For Sessions, Deadline 31st March, 2017
(IS) in Syria and Iraq brings to the fore a glaring paradox. On
the one hand, preventing the deliberate destruction of culture
now appears to hold little moral ambiguity, with such acts now
regularly condemned by various governments and agencies
around the world as both “war crimes” and a “ crimes against
humanity.” And yet, the failure to prevent IS’s campaign of destruction
is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities of culture in
times of conflict, and the inability of the so-called international
community to act upon the imperative to preserve. Indeed,
today it appears as though the threat to cultural heritage is increasing
in magnitude in accordance with the changing nature
of international conflict and terrorism.........
and populations in the region. In the coming decade one initiative in particular will take this heritage diplomacy to a whole new level, China’s One Belt One Road.
Throughout Asia rapid economic and social change means the region’s heritage is at once under threat and undergoing a revival as never before. As societies look forward, competing forces ensure they re-visit the past and the inherited, with the conservation of nature and culture now driven by the broader agendas of identity politics, tradition, revival, rapid development, environmentalism and sustainability. In response to these new and important trends, the twenty three accessible chapters here go beyond sector specific analyses to examine heritage in inter-disciplinary and critically engaged terms, encompassing the natural and the cultural, the tangible and intangible. Emerging environmentalisms, urban planning, identity politics, conflict memorialization, tourism and biodiversity are among the topics covered here.
This path-breaking volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars working in the fields of heritage, tourism, archaeology, Asian studies, geography, anthropology, development, sociology, and cultural and postcolonial studies.
Held just two years after the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Expo was encapsulated by a moment in history defined by China’s rise as a global superpower, and by the multiple challenges associated with developing more sustainable cities. The thirteen essays here, written by a team of inter-disciplinary researchers, offer a uniquely detailed analysis of this globally significant event. Chapters examine displays of futurity and utopia, the limitations of inter-cultural dialogue, and the ways in which this mega-event reflected its geo-political and cultural moment. Substantive attention is also given to the interplay between declarations towards urban sustainability and the recent economic, demographic and socio-political trajectories of Shanghai and China more broadly.
implications of a society that has undergone such profound change has received little scholarly examination until now.
Drawing upon multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and up-to-date empirical research, Expressions of Cambodia reveals the tensions and contradictions involved in post-conflict nation building and socio-cultural recovery. Together a team of international contributors take scholarship on the country in new directions, focusing on the politics of tradition and modernity, tourism, the performance of identity, post-conflict nation building, and the on-going renewal of ties between diaspora and home. Timely and much needed, the book brings Cambodia back into dialogue with its
neighbors and as such, makes a valuable contribution to the growing field of cultural studies in Asia. Written in an accessible style, Expressions of Cambodia will be of particular interest to those working in the fields of Asian studies, tourism, diaspora, and postcolonial and cultural studies.
This presentation examines how these narratives of historical connectivity and the idea of a Maritime Silk Road came about. It poses the question: Does the Maritime Silk Road stretch back millennia or is it merely an invented history less than five decades old? And if it is invented, does that matter?