Palace Museum, Chung Hsing University Host Symposium on Silk Road Cultural Exchange

The international academic symposium "Mountains, Seas, and Island Chains: The Eurasian Silk Roads" was held from June 6 to 8, 2023, across the National Palace Museum Southern Branch and neighboring National Chung Cheng University, drawing scholars and researchers from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond. Jointly organized by the National Palace Museum, National Chung Cheng University, and several international academic institutions, the conference aimed to reexamine the interactions and impacts of the overland and maritime Silk Roads across fields such as religion, language, art, and technology through interdisciplinary discussions.

Since the rise of trade between East and West, the Silk Road has served as an enduring symbol of cultural integration. The overland Silk Road connected China with Europe, traversing regions such as Central Asia and Iran, while the Maritime Silk Road linked Southeast Asia and South Asia to regions including Eastern and Northern Europe along the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, the academic community has increasingly focused on the concept of "mountains, seas, and island chains," regarding mountain ranges, maritime waters, and islands as key nodes of cultural transmission and examining their geographical and cultural implications in the context of globalization.

The symposium's agenda was organized around three primary themes: the exchange of religions and beliefs, the dissemination of languages and scripts, and innovation in art and technology.