The Old Silk Road

We’re taking a look back at a listeners’ favourite this year. The Belt and Road Initiative is a vast, ambitious development strategy to fund and build global transport and trade links in more than 60 countries. First mentioned by President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan in 2013, it was written into the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party during the 19th National Congress in October. But how much does this initiative have in common with the historic 7,000 mile-long trade route spanning from China in the East to Venice in the West?

In this interview that was originally aired on February 23, Ron Choong, an interdisciplinary scholar of science and religion with an interest in paleoanthropology, explains how different religions thrive and decline along the Old Silk Road, why India may not be the best place to go if one wishes to learn about Hinduism, and the unlikely story of how Christianity spread to China, among others.