Rethinking Eurasian History Through Travel
We spoke with Professor Anthony J. Barbieri-Low (University of California, Santa Barbara) about his new book Parallel Journeys: Eurasian History Through Travelers’ Eyes (400 BCE–1936 CE)—a unique anthology that presents a sweeping comparative history of Eurasia through the eyes of travelers spanning 2,400 years—and asked him to reflect on its central ideas.
Q: You’ve included several new English translations of Chinese texts, some never published before. Can you speak to the significance of those choices—both for Sinophone studies and for a broader global history curriculum?
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low:
Some of the translations of Chinese texts in this book replace translations that are over 150 years old, and some have never been translated into English before. For example, the travel writings of the Chinese female scholar Shan Shili, who journeyed to Europe in the early 20th century, have only been discussed in scholarly articles and translated in a few excerpts. I wanted to translate whole sections of her books, including her description of the Russian countryside and her detailed history of the Jewish ghetto in Rome. Other travelers like Ma Huan, who accompanied the famous Chinese admiral Zheng He, have received very little attention in Western scholarship, despite the existence of an earlier translation of his travelogue. My scholarly goal is that these Chinese travelers will be placed on par with the better-known Western travelers like Marco Polo and William of Rubruck.
Q: How does Parallel Journeys help decenter Eurocentric narratives in global history and world literature?
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low:
Part of my purpose in constructing the anthology was to counterbalance the prevailing narrative in Western historiography, in which explorers, travelers, and discoverers all came from the vibrant and “active” Western civilization to explore, conquer, and colonize a passive Oriental realm. This anthology shows that travelers from the East were just as curious, intrepid, and even aggressive in their explorations of Western realms. But the true advantage of my methodology is to juxtapose the accounts in pairs, one coming from the West and one coming from the East, under a shared world-historical framework. This allows me to tell the story of an interconnected Eurasia in a balanced and vibrant fashion.
Q: You’ve called travel writing a kind of “hero’s journey.” Which of the travelers in this book struck you as the most transformed by what they saw—and why?
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low:
I think the American Protestant missionary Eliza Jane Bridgman was greatly transformed by what she witnessed in China, especially the plight of Chinese women and girls, who were kept illiterate and confined at home, with their painfully bound feet. Earlier male Portuguese and Italian travelers to the East had noted the practice of foot-binding, and some had even approved of it, because they thought it was an ingenious way to keep women in the house and not gallivanting around with other men. English authors starting in the 18th century used it as an example of Chinese barbarity. But Eliza Jane Bridgman really sympathized with these young women on an emotional level and tried to liberate their minds through literacy education, liberate their souls through preaching the Gospel, but also to liberate their feet through encouraging her students to undo their bandages. Many of their parents wouldn’t allow it, since it made them unmarriageable in polite society.
Q: If you could time-travel and join one of the journeys in this book, which one would you choose—and what do you think you’d learn?
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low:
I would definitely want to be a passenger on Zheng He’s flagship through the Indian Ocean in the 1420s. It must’ve been an incredible sight to behold these enormous wooden vessels, several hundred feet long and carrying as many as nine masts, as they arrived in the ports of Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of the voyages brought more than 20,000 men on 300 or more ships. Compared to living on the small, cramped, and dangerous ships of Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gama, these sailors traveled in relative luxury, considering they had tender ships that carried freshwater and live animals for meat. This was not a life-threatening adventure into the unknown, but an armada cruise to display the might and power of the Chinese Ming empire. As a passenger, I would love to see how they navigated with their maps, compasses, and stellar cues, and how they interacted with local kingdoms and tribes. A novelist during the Ming later wrote a long fictional novel about the voyages, which I hope to translate one day.
Parallel Journeys features over two dozen firsthand accounts by ambassadors, monks, missionaries, merchants, and journalists from both East and West. Figures such as Marco Polo and Zhao Rugua, Matteo Ricci and Xie Qinggao, and Lord Macartney and Guo Songtao are paired thematically to explore how cross-cultural encounters shaped identity, historical perception, and global understanding. Each chapter includes a critical introduction and substantial excerpt, many newly translated from classical Chinese texts. Inspired by the method of comparative biography, the volume highlights how travel writing constructed ideas of the self and the other and contributed to broader processes of imperial expansion, religious exchange, and commercial integration. Ideal for readers and instructors of global history, Asian studies, and world literature, Parallel Journeys offers a powerful framework for teaching and interpreting Eurasian connectivity through the transformative act of travel.
Parallel Journeys: Eurasian History Through Travelers’ Eyes (400 BCE–1936 CE)
Hardcover and Paperback. 520pp. Jan 2026. Includes maps and color illustrations.
https://www.cambriapress.com/ParallelJourneys