Ancient civilizations were shifted and advanced when the Silk Road brought different worlds together, linking people in terms of trade, culture, and ideological impact. Historian Peter Frankopan’s work, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, pointed readers eastward and gave a new perspective on world history, becoming a top seller in over 20 countries. 

CGTN’s Liu Xin would like to share an extract from the book with you, sincerely introducing the fascinating history of the Silk Road.

When we talk about world history, people usually talk about it from the western perspective, or the European perspective. The rise of Europe is generally taken as the centric axis — so this is called the “old history”. 

However, Peter Frankopan’s work points us eastward. His book looks at the world from a new angle, gathering stories from the Middle East and its political instability, to looking at China and its economic rise. It’s this fresh perspective that makes it “new”.

For Liu Xin, she would like to see a globalized world which is free of ideology – but unfortunately we are still biased, and maintain prejudices that prevent us from maintaining an open mind. Liu points at what she calls western media’s biased reporting on Syria as an example, saying we are far from achieving the goal of cracking down ideological barriers. 

Liu believes that it is our mission to stand back and look at things from different perspectives. No matter what an outsider’s view on Syria is, for the people who live there, they have their own perspectives, which are distinctively different from Chinese and western views. Their perspectives, views and values equally deserve to be respected and understood. 

Frankopan’s book shows how throughout history, people from around the world have come to view and understand China in different ways. We have to comprehend other parts of the world in a much better, more open minded way. 

The book details the history of the Silk Roads that connected East and West for centuries, providing the first encounters between different cultures through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the twentieth century—this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. Peter Frankopan realigns our understanding of the world, pointing us eastward.

LIU Xin joined CCTV in 1997 and was a member of the founding team of CCTV News in 2001. In 2011, she was posted to Geneva, Switzerland, to found CCTV’s Geneva Bureau and served as bureau chief for nearly six years. Since January 2017, she re-joined the English language service to host the brand new weekday program “The Point with Liu Xin”.

During the 30-minute program, she conducts live interviews with guests in the studio or via satellite link on two to three topics affecting people around the world from a Chinese perspective.

Liu Xin speaks excellent English and Mandarin. She is also fluent in French and conversational Turkish and German.