The Mapping of the Silk Road by European-Chinese Expeditions (1912-1949)
I have been especially interested in scientific reports and travel accounts on "Western China" (Gansu, Xinjiang, both Mongolias, and Tibet) because they provide fascinating examples of practices which must be investigated within an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. I will emphasize in this paper the pivotal role played by maps, photographs, paintings and sketches during the expeditions conducted in 1912 and 1949, and more especially by the Sino-Swedish expedition of 1927-1935. My goal is to understand how the iconography of the Silk Road has articulated the discourse held in the earth sciences between the two world wars. The interaction between early 20th century technology and methodology and the Silk Road yielded in the USA well-known theories about race, the environment, and the "pulse of Asia"? But what do we know today on the European and Chinese geographers, geologists, meteorologists, archaeologists and paleontologists who worked together? What did they think about the political dimensions of their work? How were they able to bring together schorlarship and visual representation? Did they believe in global warming or in the decline of the West? An examination of the maps and images they produced would help with the reconstruction of the intellectual history of the hard sciences in Silk Road studies.