Yi Shan | The Old and New “Silk Road”: Differences between the two “Silk Road”

 
Is the new “Silk Road” a proper metaphor for the Belt and Road Initiative? How may the improper name cause misunderstanding? What makes the Belt and Road Initiative different from the Silk Road essentially? The Old and New “Silk Road” website is to explore the differences between the Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative. On this website, users can have an immersive experience with educational information. Users can interact with words, background images, and maps. They can travel across Asia, Oceania, and Europe, exploring the places and the stories happening on this land.

The website has a primary opening page and four subsidiary pages. It first uses the opening video about the desert view of Dunhuang to open the whole trip to users. Then, users can check short instructions on the contents of each page–introduction, maps, stories, and reference–and decide which pages they can visit. The introduction web page gives a brief introduction about the Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative, such as their original purposes and functions. The moving desert-like background and the forward-moving camels push users to go through the whole webpage, with the white sound from the wind of the desert. The map web page shows the routes directly. The map allows users to zoom in and out, click on the lines and cities to check the details about the routes. The stories web page tells some significant comparisons such as the culture, merchandise, and transportation. The map tour on this page leads users to travel along the routes, reading the stories and view the differences from ancient to present. The reference page records all the credits and the inspiration of this capstone project.

The website integrates several books, news, and articles to understand the naming and essence of the routes. When the author developed the practical section, the website is the priority since it is easier for everyone to access it. The author also drew the lines and spots of these routes by herself on the ArcGIS mapping platform. In the meantime, she also uses the StoryMap for making a map tour. As the research before, most creators use the locations (places) in StoryMap separately, which means that they tell one story/event in each location instead of unifying several locations to tell one story. Hence, the author decided that several locations can collaborate to convey one piece of information.
Finally, this project hopes users not only focus on the misnaming of “Silk Road” but can also think twice when they hear the name of something they do not understand. The government, organizations, and individuals may utilize the name to polish or hide their purposes. Whatever it is goodwill or malice, it is better to keep an objective attitude and judge it after understanding it comprehensively.