News

Maroons Explore Silk Road Ties

Professor Tamara Chin and staff led students in the East Asian Civilizations program at the Center in Beijing on an excursion of three packed days in Xi'an, as part of their study of the ancient Silk Road.  The aim of the class was to teach students about China’s relations with the outside world during the Han and Tang dynasty, when Xi'an (then Chang’an) was the largest cosmopolitan capital of the ancient world.

Students had examined early literary, political, and religious debates about the value and circulation of material objects, and their visits to the famous mausoleums of the Qin and Han dynasty emperors, two new museum exhibitions on the Silk Road, and two Tang dynasty Buddhist pagodas enriched their understanding of material life during these periods.