Silk Road to Belt Road ― Reinventing the Past and Shaping the Future

This volume approaches China’s Belt and Road Initiative as a process of culturalization, one that started with the Silk Road and continued over the millennium. In mainstream literature, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been portrayed as the geo-economic vision and geo-political ambition of China’s current leaders, intended to shape the future of the world. However, this volume argues that although geo-politics and geo-economy may play their part, the BRI more importantly creates a venue for the meeting of cultures by promoting people-to-people interaction and exchange. This volume explores the journey from the Silk-Road to Belt-Road by analyzing topics ranging from history to religion, from language to culture, and from environment to health. As such, scholars, academics, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students from the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Business will find an alternative approach to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Md. Nazrul Islam is an Associate Professor at the General Education Office, United International College, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Hong Kong; his MSc in Community Health and Health Management from Heidelberg University; and his Bachelor in Anthropology (First Class Honors) from Jahangirnagar University. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Canada (2015-16); a Visiting Scholar at the Center of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong (2008); Attached to University of Calcutta, India (2004-2005); a Visiting Research Associate at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines (2003); German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellow, Germany (2002-03); and The United Nations University Fellow, Japan (2001). He is the author of the book Chinese and Indian Medicine Today-Branding Asia by Springer Nature (2017) and editor of Public Health Challenges in Contemporary China: An Interdisciplinary Perspective by Springer (2016).