CC BY
0CULTURAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CHINA AND UZBEKISTAN FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SILK ROAD
Wang Guilian
PhD Student of the National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent;
Teacher of Jining Normal University, Jining, China https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11476672
Abstract: The Silk Road is not only a trade road, but also a road of cultural communication. Since its inception, the Silk Road had continuously developed and formed a huge transportation network, which becoming a bridge between the East and the West for trade exchanges and cultural communication.
More than 2,000 years ago, China established close contact with many Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan through the Silk Road, which leaving a rich cultural heritage for future generations and making historic contributions to world civilizations. It had also laid a solid foundation for the continued friendship between China and Central Asian countries in the new era.
Key words: Silk Road, China, Uzbekistan, Central Asia, Cultural Communication
Introduction
The Silk Road is one of the most precious legacies in human history with rich cultural connotations and new contemporary value. Within the framework of the Silk Road, China, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries have a long history of friendly communication. Favorable conditions such as convenient geographical advantages and profound emotional genes provide a good basis for cultural communication with each other. Since Uzbekistan became independence in 1991, it has established diplomatic relations with China immediately. With the continuous development of bilateral friendly relations, cultural communication between the two countries have also attracted the attention of scholars around the world.
At present, there are some achievements in China studying the aspect of cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan. Based on previous research, this article collects relevant historical materials and uses time as a clue to trace the cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan during the ancient Silk Road period, and then carefully introduces outstanding achievements between the two countries in the field of education since 1991. Finally, the article concludes with a summary and is full of hope for the bright future of two countries.
Cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan during the period of ancient Silk Road
The term "Silk Road" first came from the book Travel in China wrote by the famous German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 1870s. In the book, for the first time, he called this trade route that originated in China, passed through Central Asia, and crossed Europe the "Silk Road", and this statement was agreed by many scholars.
As for the Silk Road, it could be traced back to the period from 202 BC to 8 AD, Zhang Qian, the ambassador of Han Dynasty, went to the Western Regions on the order of the emperor. He opened up a land passage starting from Chang'an in China, passing through Gansu and Xinjiang, to Central Asia and West Asia, and connecting countries in the Mediterranean. It got this name because silk products had the greatest influence among the goods transported on this road.
The ancient Silk Road connected ancient China, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya regions, India,
Iran, Iraq, Turkey and mang other further Europe regions, which promoting commercial trade and cultural communication between the Eurasian continent, as well as promoting the integration of the world.
Uzbekistan is an important country located in the center of Central Asia, it has an advantageous geographical location. In ancient times, it was the convergence point of primary trade routes as well as an active place for various cultural communication. Uzbekistan and China have a history of more than 2,000 years of communication through this Silk Road.
During the period of Western Han Dynasty in China, nomadic tribes such as Dayuan and Kangju lived in the Fergana region. Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian made his first mission to the Western Regions in 138 BC, and his first stop was Dayuan, and Kangju was also one of the ancient Central Asian countries that Zhang Qian visited. The territory of Kangju was mainly in southern Kazakhstan and the lower reaches of the Syr Darya in Uzbekistan.1
After the rise of the Silk Road, Chinese silk products, porcelain, lacquerware, and ironware were transported to Europe and other distant regions through Central Asian countries. Gems, pomegranates, grapes, walnuts, carrots, peppers, beans, garlic, swift horses2, etc. from Central Asian countries also flowed to China via the ancient Silk Road, enriching material lives of the Chinese people. As a transportation route across Asia and Europe, the Silk Road was not only a major artery of trade between the East and the West in ancient times, but also a key channel of cultural communication between China and foreign countries. Therefore, it had unique and important value and left precious legacies for future generations.
l.Spreading science and advanced material culture
The Silk Road was an important link for cultural communication in ancient Eurasian continent. In the process of long-term trade and civilization spread, many local special products from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries were introduced to China. In terms of musical instruments, there were komuz, dombra, and kobyz, these musical instruments with unique characteristics were deeply loved by the Chinese; in the aspect of daily necessities, folding beds, chairs, and tables were brought from Central Asia; in terms of crops, there were peanuts, broad beans, grapes, pomegranates, tomatoes, spinach, figs, sesame, etc.; and luxury goods such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, spices and tortoise shells were also introduced, which greatly improved the living standards of Chinese people.
In ancient ages, many Central Asian tribes relied on agriculture and animal husbandry to make a living, but their production tools were relatively simple and production capacity was low. Owing to Silk Road, China's advanced technologies such as cast iron technology, silk reeling, well digging, and water irrigation were introduced to Central Asia, which increased the yield of local crops, accelerated the development of local handicrafts, and also provided material basis for extensive exchanges among various ethnic groups.
2. Promoting the spread of religion and philosophy
1 J. Harmatta. History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume II.The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations:700 B.C. to A.D. 250. France:United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,1994, p151.
2
Edward Hetzel Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics, University of California Press,1985, p173.
The Silk Road was initially focused on commercial trade. As it continued to develop in the later period, cultural communication among countries along the route gradually expanded, involving religion, philosophy, language and other aspects. Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism from India was introduced to China by merchants via Silk Road. Therefore, the main body of Buddhism introduced to the China was no longer pure Indian Buddhism, but also had the characteristics of Central Asian Zoroastrianism. Similarly, Islam and Christianity, which had a profound influence in Central Asia, also spread to China and had a huge impact on Chinese society. At that time there were many Central Asian monks in Chang'an, Luoyang and many other areas of China.
In the same time, Chinese Confucianism was also spread to the West through successive generations of Central Asians and Arabs, influencing the birth of modern European civilization and promoting the development of world civilization. Confucian classics such as the the Classic of Documents and Book of Divination had been continuously translated into different languages and spread all over the world. Chinese philosophy had also become an ideal model in the minds of European enlighteners. The ideas of benevolence and harmony advocated by Confucianism had a great influence on neighboring Central Asian countries. There are many specialized research institutes studying Confucianism in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries untill today.
3.Promoting the development of diverse arts
The migration and integration of many ethnic groups in the history of ancient China and Central Asia along the Silk Road jointly created splendid art and culture. In the 1st century AD, acrobatics from the Western Regions were introduced to China, and Chinese acrobatics became more colorful after complementing acrobatics from the Western Regions, adding a lot of fun to people's daily lives. From the 7th century to the 10th century AD, China had a vast territory and a developed economy, it formed an open and diverse cultural pattern and had extensive interactions with neighboring regions. For example, Li Bai, the greatest poet in Chinese history, was born in Central Asia. The Chinese Tang Dynasty culture represented by Li Bai was splendid in terms of poetry, painting, music, dance, and had extremely high historical value.
Cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan since 1991
During the 1990s, the revival of the New Silk Road, which with the New Asia-Europe Bridge as the main body, has had an increasingly far-reaching impact on the economic development of China, Central Asia, and even the world. Uzbekistan is a neighbor of China and located in the northwest of China. Thousands of years ago, the ancient Silk Road connected China and Uzbekistan and opened the prelude to friendly exchanges. Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, Xuan Zang of the Tang Dynasty, and Chen Cheng of the Ming Dynasty all visited Uzbekistan as ambassadors. The famous works of Uzbek celebrities such as Navoiy, Mirza Uluqbek, and Al-Xorazmiy had been also widely circulated in China.
Since the establishment of Uzbekistan in 1991, China and Uzbekistan have been committed to joint development. Uzbekistan and China established a strategic partnership in 2012, which providing a guarantee for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation. In the year of 2013, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Central Asia, based on the concept of ancient Silk Road, he proposed to use innovative models to jointly build a "Silk Road Economic Belt"3to provide economic development with the vast number of developing countries in Eurasia. In 2016, the two
3 Zhang Hui. The logic of tourism. Beijing: Beijing Tourism Education Press, 2021, p158.
sides established a comprehensive strategic partnership.
What's more, In the year of 2024, the two heads of state announced that China and Uzbekistan have decided to develop a all-round strategic partnership in the new era, which chould promoting the construction of a community with a shared future between China and Uzbekistan from a higher starting point, as well as deepen cultural communication and carrying out poverty reduction cooperation.
In the cultural cooperation between China and Uzbekistan, educational cooperation is an important part. As everyone knows, education determines the present and future of mankind4. Human society needs to continuously cultivate useful talents that society needs through education, so that people could better understand the world, transform the world, and create a better future. As the United Nations emphasizes: Education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved. When people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty5.
China and Uzbekistan have carried out multi-level cooperation in the field of education, and the work of sending students to each other is getting better and better. The exchange of students between China and Uzbekistan could be traced back to the Soviet period. With the expansion of opening to the outside world, China has actively strengthened educational exchanges with Central Asian countries.
In 1993, China and Uzbekistan established a mutual recognition relationship for higher education degrees6, which offered a strong foundation for further educational cooperation. According to relevant statistics, the total number of Uzbek students studying in China in 2016 was 3,129, which can be divided into two categories, one is the academic students, with 1,669 people, and the other is non-academic students, with 1,4607 people.
Correspondingly, many Chinese undergraduates, masters and doctoral students study abroad in Uzbekistan every year through different channels such as state-sponsored or self-funded programs. At the same time, Chinese universities' teachers and scholars from scientific institute who are proficient in Russian or Uzbek could go to Uzbekistan to continue their studies as senior visiting scholars. In November 2013, a visiting group composed of teachers and 18 students from the three majors of Marketing, International Trade, and Agricultural and Forestry Economic Management in Xinjiang Agricultural University went to Tashkent State University of Economics and Tashkent State Agrarian University. They held meaningful research activities, and both students deepened their understanding of the economy, trade and culture of Central Asian countries in practice.
In terms of language exchange, both sides have achieved remarkable achievements. The first Confucius Institute in Central Asia, the Tashkent Confucius Institute, was established in 2005. It has developed into a highly influential Chinese learning and cultural dissemination center in
4 Zhou Hongyu, Li Yuyang. Building A Powerful Country in Education. Beijing: China Youth Publishing House, 2022, p168.
5 https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/
6 List of Bilateral Agreements Signed by China on the Mutual Recognition of Degrees and Diplomas between Countries. http: ||www.cdgdc.edu.cn/xwyyjsjyxx/dwjl/xwhr/
7
Compiled by the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education. Concise Statistics of International Students in China in 2016. Beijing: International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education, 2016, P6.
Uzbekistan8. The Institute has taught more than 3,000 students and organized Uzbek teachers to go to China to receive training on many occasions. It is equally important that the Tashkent Confucius Institute has been responsible for organizing Sinology seminars across Uzbekistan since the year of 2012 and has made great contributions to the development of Chinese language in Uzbekistan.
In November 2014, the second Confucius Institute at Foreign Languages of Samarkand State University in Uzbekistan was launched, which providing strong support for cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan. In addition, there are two Chinese cultural research centers in Uzbekistan: the Chinese National Cultural Center and the Dungan Cultural Center, and these centers are located in the capital Tashkent.
Similarly, in recent years, in order to strengthen research on Uzbekistan and better promote cooperation between China and Uzbekistan, Chinese universities have established a number of Uzbekistan research centers. The main ones include: the Institute of Central Asia established by Lanzhou University in 1994, the Uzbekistan Research and Education Exchange Center established by Shanghai University in 2013, and the Uzbekistan Research Center established by Shaanxi Normal University in 2017 and so on.
To recapitulate briefly, these centers have greatly promoted the cultivation of Chinese language talents and plentiful professional talents in Uzbekistan, which plays an important role in the process of cooperation between two countries. At the same time, many universities in China, such as Beijing Foreign Studies University, Shanghai International Studies University, and Xi'an International Studies University, all of them offer Uzbek language majors and have trained many outstanding talents.
In January 2024, the China-Uzbekistan Hundred-School Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing. More than 100 Chinese universities and 37 Uzbekistan universities participated in the forum activities. During the forum, universities from two countries issued the Beijing Declaration on China-Uzbekistan University Cooperation. The National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek and China's Dalian Neusoft University of Information signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation in science and technology.
It is widwly known that with the rapid development of science and technology, today's world is an era of knowledge economy. Competition in technology, culture and comprehensive national strength are all competitions for talents ultimately, and cultivating talents are inseparable from high-quality education. The close cooperation between Uzbekistan and China in high-quality education has cultivated many talents and made marvelous contributions to the mutually beneficial of two countries.
The development of Chinese language teaching in Uzbekistan has increased employment opportunities for local people. Connected by the New Silk Road Economic Belt, the economic and trade volume between two countries has grown rapidly. According to the latest data released by the National Statistical Committee of Uzbekistan, the bilateral trade volume between Uzbekistan and China in 2018 was approximately US$6.428 billion, accounting for 19% of Uzbekistan's total
foreign trade and China continued to remain Uzbekistan's largest trading partner9.
8
N.Khusamutinov. Development Status Survey Research of Uzbekistan Confucius Institute. Master's dissertation of Liaoning Normal University, 2015, p6.
9 https://www.yidaiyilu.gov.en/p/78406.html
Various foreign trade companies have been established in Uzbekistan to do business with China and these companies need to recruit a large number of staff who are proficient in Chinese, which creating many job opportunities for Uzbek people learning Chinese. It has helped many Uzbek people escape poverty and live a rich life. Equally important, China and Uzbekistan share the same goal of promoting gender equality, and the two countries regularly organize relevant activities to enhance cooperation in this field.
The Outlook of Future
The friendly exchanges between China and Uzbekistan have a long history and continues to nowadays. As early as the 1st century AD, Zhang Qian arrived as an ambassador and established direct contact with the ancient countries in the Transoxiana region where Uzbekistan is located today. Since then, friendly exchanges between China and Central Asia have continued for more than two thousand years, jointly making important contributions to the progress of human civilization.
Since Uzbekistan's independence in 1991, in the development of friendly relations between China and Uzbekistan for more than 30 years, cultural communication and economic cooperation have shown great vitality, achieved a series of landmark results, and set a model for a new type of international relations. China and Uzbekistan have got remarkable results in the field of educational, such as sending international students, co-building Confucius Institutes, and offering Chinese and Uzbek language courses. They have made important contributions to eradicating poverty, promoting gender equality, and achieving the sustainable development goals.
In terms of culture and art, both China and Uzbekistan hold many cultural activities to promote and introduce each other's cultural achievements. In June 2004, the "Chinese Culture Day" was held in Uzbekistan, in which there were Chinese contemporary art exhibitions and Chinese film festivals. In 2005, the "Uzbekistan Culture Day" was held in Beijing. The Confucius Institute in Uzbekistan has also carried out a series of cultural activities based on local conditions, such as the Confucius Institute in Tashkent has offered cultural courses such as calligraphy, Tai Chi, and Chinese Peking Opera appreciation every year. These activities have undoubtedly promoted cultural communication between China and Uzbekistan to a great extent.
In addition, the famous Uzbek gymnast Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina is the athlete who has participated in the most Olympic Games. Because of her hard work and never-giving spirit, she has become the idol of many Chinese people, and allowing more Chinese people to deeply feel the spirit of perseverance and smart of the Uzbek people.
As China and Uzbekistan establish a all-round strategic partnership, the two sides have achieved excellent achievements in cross-border e-commerce, new energy, biotechnology, digital economy and other new industries. Building a Green Silk Road, a Smart Silk Road, a road to poverty reduction and a road to innovation have become new engines for China and Uzbekistan. We have enough reasons to believe that the cooperation between China and Uzbekistan will reach a higher level in the future.
References
1. J. Harmatta. History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume II.The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations:700 B.C. to A.D. 250. France:United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,1994, p151.
2. Edward Hetzel Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics, University of California Press,1985, p173.
3. Zhang Hui. The logic of tourism. Beijing: Beijing Tourism Education Press, 2021, p158.
4. Zhou Hongyu, Li Yuyang. Building A Powerful Country in Education. Beijing: China Youth Publishing House, 2022, p168.
5. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/
6. List of Bilateral Agreements Signed by China on the Mutual Recognition of Degrees and Diplomas between Countries. http:||www. cdgdc.edu.cn/xwyyjsjyxx/dwjl/xwhr/
7. Compiled by the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education. Concise Statistics of International Students in China in 2016. Beijing: International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education, 2016, P6.
8. N.Khusamutinov. Development Status Survey Research of Uzbekistan Confucius Institute. Master's dissertation of Liaoning Normal University, 2015, p6.
9. https://www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/p/78406.html
