Along the Silk Road (Asian Art and Culture) [Paperback]

Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis (Editor), Milo Cleveland Beach (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002 | Series: Asian Art and Culture

In 1998 renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the Silk Road Project, Inc., a nonprofit foundation devoted to the living arts of peoples of traditional Silk Road lands. One of the major components of this exciting, multiyear venture has been the commissioning of new works by composers from Silk Road regions to be played in concerts and festivals throughout the world. An equally fascinating part of the project is the exploration of ways that traditional cultural expression can help revitalize contemporary culture, a goal exemplified by this volume, itself part of the Silk Road Project activities. The greater Silk Road encompassed certain sea routes and the loose system of trails that crossed the mountains and deserts of Central Asia to connect East Asia and the Mediterranean. This historical network, at its height from the second century B.C.E. until the fourteenth century, was the most cosmopolitan area on earth. Merchants carrying fine silks and lacquers westward from China would mingle with traders bringing fragile Roman glass to the east or with Indians seeking markets for carved ivory cosmetic boxes and gold ornaments for fashionable women. It was by these routes, too, that the religions of Buddhism and Islam, among others, spread throughout Asia. This richly illustrated, lively book is keynoted by Yo-Yo Ma's candid insights into contemporary music and the Silk Road. Distinguished contributors who explore the present-day Silk road and its absorbing history include a composer, an ethnomusicologist, an archaeologist, a photographer, a scientist, a film critic, and two art historians. Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis is associate professor of Asian/Japanese art history at Boston University and associate in research at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Contributors include Yo-Yo Ma, Theodore Levin, Bright Sheng, Elizabeth Barber, Kenro Izu, Debra Diamond, Merton C. Flemings, and Hamid Naficy.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma started the Silk Road Project in 1998 to further cultural study of a swathe of countries from Japan to France that lie along the old trade routes across Asia, which facilitated the exchange of goods like silk and spices. Also exchanged were ideas governing disparate facets of culture, like music, art, and philosophy. This book was assembled to accompany various festivals, concerts, films, and CDs associated with the project. Seven illustrated chapters by seven authors cover the history of Iranian cinema, the textiles of Central Asia, metalworking technology transfer, astrology, sacred sites of the Silk Road, the music of China, and a conversation with Ma. The material is fascinating, and the presentation is clear and accessible to nonscholars, but unfortunately no framework is provided; the only links are geographical. A further discussion of cultural connections would have been welcome, but the beautiful illustrations do hint at a rich cultural heritage. Recommended for Asian studies collections in academic or larger public libraries. David McClelland, Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This beautiful volume of pictures and observations grew out of cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, a nonprofit foundation that promotes the living arts of the lands through which the fabled trade route ran. Blessed with one of the most fascinating, cosmopolitan histories on Earth, the region of the route manifests the closest thing to a culture of East-West synthesis that can be found. The book's perceptive essays on topics ranging from astrology to technological evolution come alive in the stunning accompanying pictures, which convey the tremendous vitality and the haunting isolation found along the Silk Road. Particularly captivating is the photo sequence of holy sites and monasteries, which in black-and-white resemble ruins on a lunar landscape. There is more than ancient desolation, however. The concluding chapter is on Iranian cinema, which Hamid Naficy deftly describes as an arena in the ongoing struggle between tradition and progress in the cradle of civilization. Will Hickman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295981822
• ISBN-13: 978-0295981826
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 7.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Picture the Silk Road, October 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Along the Silk Road (Asian Art and Culture) (Paperback)

Even without the essays, ALONG THE SILK ROAD would be a visually fascinating book. The numinous photographs by Kenro Izu are art in themselves, and I looked at all the other pictures, too, before reading the text. The great variety has allowed the designer to create a book that is dynamic on the page, and the pictures themselves show everything from ancient art objects to present-day Uyghur street musicians, from landscape to Buddhist imagery on silk. They catch something of the scope of time, geography, and cultural sweep that the Silk Road Project is addressing in many ways. I thought the variety of articles worked very well, too: interview, personal reflection, travelogue, and sound scholarship with a light touch. The different voices and topics make clear that the project has room for many approaches to exploring the contacts, differences, and fusions of a vast region that has for eons been bound up in all sorts of exchanges and reciprocal influences, most of which I knew nothing about until I read this book. It's a great introduction to what a deeply humane America artist, Yo-yo Ma, has been up to recently, and more importantly to a part of the world that has stimulated him and his fellow artists. As the recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated, our fate is bound up with a part of the world that most of us don't know enough about. The good news is that learning about the region can set you thinking all sorts of new and exciting things.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars hit and miss, July 2, 2003

By 

P. Cornelius "pcornelius" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Along the Silk Road (Asian Art and Culture) (Paperback)

Contents:

Introduction by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis

1. Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma by Ted Levin [music]

2. Melodic Migration in NW China by Bright Sheng [music]

3. Fashioned from Fiber by Elizabeth Barber [textiles]

4. Astrology and a Japanese Star Mandala by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis [astrology]

5. Sacred Sites along the Silk Road by Kenro Izu [photography]

6. Traveling Technologies by Merton C. Flemings [metallurgy]

7. Iranian Cinema by Hamid Naficy [film]

As the table of contents shows, this introductory work is rather a mixed bag in both quality and content, much of it originally published elsewhere in longer form. Hits include the pieces on music, textiles and metallurgy. The piece on astrology probably won't find a general audience and the pop art chapter on Iranian film seems oddly out of sync with the rest. Photos and illustrations are good. Text is a double-spaced 144 pages with fairly wide margins. There are irritations such as the p. 42 suggestion identifying the ancient Xiong Nu as ancestors of modern Hungarians that show outside review was needed (the common blunder of confusing Huns and the similar sounding Hungarians). Bright Sheng's piece discusses White Mongols and Yellow Mongols without really explaining the terms and one has to wonder why we have the music composer writing about history. Elizabeth Barber's piece shows the influence of the theories of Victor Mair, with whom she has worked. These theories of ancient Iranian influence on China (what Mair terms the "East Asian heartland") are not so universally accepted as the text suggests, or, at least, not everyone discusses them as much as does Mair. One gets the feeling that the book was thrown together fairly quickly and haphazardly in order to have merchandise to sell at the concerts of Yo-Yo Ma's worldwide Silk Road tour. In these circumstances it was probably too much to hope that it would have the same excellent quality as the tour itself.

5.0 out of 5 stars Silk Road - A different Perspective, January 26, 2012

By 

Scott in Maine - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Along the Silk Road (Asian Art and Culture) (Paperback)

I have done substantial study of the Silk Road and its history. Yet, this book provided me with a more unique perspective that integrated the cultural / artistic aspects of SR life with the ancient history and its link to modern times. It is an easy read and is even something that I can read aloud to my 11 year old kid!