ABSTRACT
This chapter explores China's historical statecraft through a literary analysis of The Travels of Marco Polo and The Travels of Ibn Battutah, which are Western and Arab travel accounts of China and the Silk Road. The literary lens is used to understand the representational gap that emerges from China's selective uses of history. As explained in earlier chapters, China selectively uses representations of the Silk Road history in its communications to stabilize foreign relations. In part, China communicates about people mobility by recalling the many and diverse people who traveled the Silk Road. Books are useful sources to gain insights into the efficacy of the Silk Road trope in global politics because they allow us to reflect on whether ideas that underpin the Silk Road remain suitable across space and time. The literary reading of these two books problematizes Silk Road nostalgia, disenchants what mobility meant along the historic Silk Road, and elucidates more diverse impressions of China. In doing so, it highlights the aesthetic insecurity resulting from China's selective representation of history.
