Geocultural Power: China's Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will turn ten next year. The literature has been abundant and divided into competing characterizations.¹ Strategic writers frame BRI as Beijing's expansion to capture critical resources, penetrate other nations, and dominate regional security. Diplomatic specialists underscore China's propositions to restructure relationships with other countries and regions to shape global governance. The vast number of political economists, in contrast, focus on complicated interplays of Chinese and recipients' actions in a wide range of BRI projects.² As a whole, the literature has paid little attention to the cultural aspects of BRI. To the extent it does, the cultural expressions and gathering in the name of Silk Roads are often viewed as “orchestrated diplomacy little more than a cynically conceived spectacle” (180). Nevertheless, the BRI promotion has heavily used culture, history, and heritage. Chinese leaders, government representatives, and counterparts in other countries have extensively employed...