Tearing Up the Silk Road

Tearing Up the Silk Road PDF Author: Tom Coote
Publisher: Garnet Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1859643027
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Tearing up the Silk Road is an irreverent travelogue that details a journey along the ancient trade routes from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus. As Tom Coote struggles through the often arbitrary borders and bureaucracies of China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, it becomes increasingly apparent that the next generations to rise to power, will see themselves in a very different light to their predecessors: in an increasingly interconnected world, archaic conceptions of race, ethnicity and nationalism will come to be seen as increasingly irrelevant. Instead, new forms of identity are emerging, founded more upon shared cultural preferences and aspirations, than on the remnants of tribal allegiance. While rushing through from East to West, Tom Coote meets, befriends and argues with an epic range of characters: from soldiers and monks, to pilgrims, travellers and modern day silk road traders. All are striving for something more and most dream of being somewhere else. By bus, train and battered car - through deserts, open plains and mountain ranges - we find ourselves again and again at the front line of a desperate war for 'hearts and minds'. Through rapidly expanding megacities, to ancient ruins, and far more recently created wastelands, it is the West that is winning the souls while the East grows ever stronger. The real 'clash of civilisations', however, seems set to be not between the East and the West, but between the few who have so much, and the masses now uniting to demand so much more.

Tearing Up the Silk Road

Tearing Up the Silk Road PDF Author: Tom Coote
Publisher: Garnet Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1859643027
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tearing up the Silk Road is an irreverent travelogue that details a journey along the ancient trade routes from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus. As Tom Coote struggles through the often arbitrary borders and bureaucracies of China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, it becomes increasingly apparent that the next generations to rise to power, will see themselves in a very different light to their predecessors: in an increasingly interconnected world, archaic conceptions of race, ethnicity and nationalism will come to be seen as increasingly irrelevant. Instead, new forms of identity are emerging, founded more upon shared cultural preferences and aspirations, than on the remnants of tribal allegiance. While rushing through from East to West, Tom Coote meets, befriends and argues with an epic range of characters: from soldiers and monks, to pilgrims, travellers and modern day silk road traders. All are striving for something more and most dream of being somewhere else. By bus, train and battered car - through deserts, open plains and mountain ranges - we find ourselves again and again at the front line of a desperate war for 'hearts and minds'. Through rapidly expanding megacities, to ancient ruins, and far more recently created wastelands, it is the West that is winning the souls while the East grows ever stronger. The real 'clash of civilisations', however, seems set to be not between the East and the West, but between the few who have so much, and the masses now uniting to demand so much more.

Silk Road to Ruin

Silk Road to Ruin PDF Author: Ted Rall
Publisher: NBM Publishing
ISBN: 1561638870
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Part graphic novel travelogue, part tongue-in-cheek travel guide, this collection gathers the adventures of caustic cartoonist Ted Rall in the wild and woolly central Asian countries, a veritable powder keg sitting atop the oil the world will need tomorrow. The book combines articles with comics in chapters that relate Rall’s experiences retracing the legendary Silk Road, from the sublime history of China to the absurdity of the present-day petty dictatorships of the “The ’Stans,” to which the author had the temerity—or perhaps stupidity—to return, including once with a group of listeners on his radio show, on a dare. This always-lively compendium offers readers an exotic adventure, satire, and a fun way to find out more about an often overlooked part of the world that looms in importance with its immense, and immensely coveted, reserves of oil.

Take the Silk Road Home

Take the Silk Road Home PDF Author: Barry Terenna
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105825760
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Two very different brothers, grow up in a close Italian-American family in a small town in Westchester County, New York. The responsible younger brother aids his reckless brother through the trials of his life. The book traces the journey of each brother through the 1960's to the present day, relating their careers, loves, and relationship with one another and the women in their lives. The story begins hundreds of years earlier with a glimpse of ancestors past, revealing very famous ties and ultimately leads to the curious events in the lives of both brothers. The simple life in the old country contributes to the paths both brothers take. There is a strong connection to Asia where one brother faces the horrors of the war in Vietnam and the other travels to China for adventure and inspiration. Cultures and national heritage enrich the human interactions and connections between friends, families and lovers and show that different backgrounds are less important to relationships than human emotions.

Overlanding the Silk Road

Overlanding the Silk Road PDF Author: Norman Handy
Publisher: novum pro Verlag
ISBN: 3990487094
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This is the story of a journey following the Silk Road, from Europe to China, beginning in London. The real journey starts in Istanbul, winding through the history and countryside of Turkey and over the border into Iran, to experience its rich history and architecture. There are bizarre experiences of the beautiful, modern but empty city of Ashgabat, and much more. A trip to the disappearing Aral Sea, is followed by immense architecture and history, across a land fought over by Alexander the Great, Tamarind and Genghis Khan. There is the enchanting mountains of Kyrgyzstan, with its beautiful mountains and lakes, known as Asia's little Switzerland. The scene slowly changes as the Muslim influence gives way to Han Chinese dominance, the Great Wall of China and the end of the Silk Road.

Silk Road: The Study Of Drama Culture

Silk Road: The Study Of Drama Culture PDF Author: Qiang Li
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813202971
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 855

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Book Description
Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture is the translated edition of the Chinese academic book of the same title written by Professor LI Qiang from Shaanxi Normal University, China. The book breaks through the concept of regarding Han Drama as the center, yet elaborates the Silk Road drama as an inclusive culture and a prevailing literary art form in human civilization. Relying on his extensive experience and broad vision, the author conducts the thorough study by means of literature, artifacts and academic fieldwork. The book studies the drama culture of all ethnic groups from Asia, Europe and Africa and touches upon the cultural exchanges between China and its neighboring countries, between the East and the West. The carefully presented details in this book are aimed to explore all the related fields such as dramaturgy, philology, phonology, religion, history, geography, archeology, ethnology, and folklore between the East and the West from the perspective of cultural anthropology. The explanations in the book contribute to an in-depth study on the origins of the Silk Road and the drama culture along the Silk Road.

Silk Road

Silk Road PDF Author: Kenneth Canatsey
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514405350
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
In a bohemian odyssey set in the 1960s, a young man just out of college backpacks around the world, sampling hash, sex, and illumination as the Vietnam War rages. . . . A rich, exotic journey that will leave you reaching for your passport. Kirkus Review It is 1966, and the narrator and his roommate are leaving their California college town in order to hitchhike to New York City and join their friends who are already there. So begins what will become a 20,000 mile journey of loss and redemption. Silk Road: The Journey is a tale of travel, adventure, and a young man's coming of age, evolving under unexpected and, at times, the most unusual of circumstances. Here, the changing landscape becomes an active - although not always benign - participant in the story. Above all, the novel is a chronicle of impermanence, in which the narrative - on one level a series of adventures in which places and events change, and bonds between people are formed, developed and severed becomes, on a deeper level, an examination of transience, as the protagonist searches for meaning and permanence to the farthest ends of the earth, but is able to find it only when he returns home. A spirited, free-wheeling and ultimately sobering story of irreverent and reckless youth.

Lands of Lost Borders

Lands of Lost Borders PDF Author: Kate Harris
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0345816781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE RBC TAYLOR PRIZE WINNER OF THE EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION "Every day on a bike trip is like the one before--but it is also completely different, or perhaps you are different, woken up in new ways by the mile." As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars. To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory and hit the Silk Road again with Mel, this time determined to bike it from the beginning to end. Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer before her, Kate Harris offers a travel narrative at once exuberant and meditative, wry and rapturous. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.

Keiko the Fairy, the Silk Road

Keiko the Fairy, the Silk Road PDF Author: Lane Rockford Orsak
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1257754882
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
The Silk Road, the second book of the Keiko series, is filled with twists and unexpected turns as Red tries to avoid the mob in Tokyo, and the U.S. Navy sends Nick on special assignment. Red is invited to the Imperial Palace where Empress Meiko extends her hand in friendship and gives Red important information about her mother's true identity. Nick is sent to China for its 60th Naval Anniversary celebration, and secretly attempts a dangerous mission to retrieve Red's mother and the Crown of India, with help from a very unexpected ally. Red and Nick learn about the ancient trade routes from China to the Middle East, called the Silk Road, and how powerful philosophical ideas accompanied the precious riches traded. In the face of extraordinary challenges, Keiko continues to share her love and wisdom with the young couple, as they begin to realize they care for one another deeply.

Old Silk Road

Old Silk Road PDF Author: Brandon Caro
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1618688715
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Norman “Doc” Rodgers is in a world of pain. A young combat medic in Afghanistan, he’s eager to avenge his father’s death in the World Trade Center and make sense of a new world that feels like it’s fallen to pieces. Haunted by hallucinatory encounters his only solace is a barely concealed addiction to the precious opiates he’s supposed to dole out sparingly to those beyond help. Old Silk Road weaves a striking tale of permanent terror, hazy objectives, shadowy contractors and the toll of modern warfare on soldiers and civilians alike. In this tautly-plotted debut novel Caro, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, tells the story of a soldier’s undoing in raw, incendiary and hypnotic prose. It’s an extraordinary portrait one soldier’s frustration, confusion and ambivalence, written by someone who’s been there.

Geocultural Power

Geocultural Power PDF Author: Tim Winter
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022665849X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Launched in 2013, China's Belt and Road Initiative is forging connections in infrastructure, trade, energy, finance, tourism, and culture across Eurasia and Africa. This extraordinarily ambitious strategy places China at the center of a geography of overland and maritime connectivity stretching across more than sixty countries and incorporating almost two-thirds of the world’s population. But what does it mean to revive the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century? Geocultural Power explores this question by considering how China is couching its strategy for building trade, foreign relations, and energy and political security in an evocative topography of history. 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 many countries—including Iran, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and others—are revisiting their histories to find points of diplomatic and cultural connection. Through the revived Silk Roads, 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, invasion, and bloodshed are left behind for a language of history and heritage that crosses borders in ways that further the trade ambitions of an increasingly networked China-driven economy.