Moderator: Yang Jun (CCTV senior media commentator/program host)

Media Person: Li Xiguang (Director of Tsinghua University International Journalism and Communication Research Center)

Yang Jun: Hello, Professor Li Xiguang. Welcome to our studio. Do you think it needs a little time spirit to be a media in this society now?

The simplest thing is the most beautiful.

Li Xiguang: Yes, especially the media major, because the media itself is more engaged in news reporting, which is closely related to the times.

Yang Jun: Do you think our modern equipment, including our ideas, can match your academic work?

Li Xiguang: Without the development of communication technology, we can't do news reporting and media research. Without the development of communication technology, media research and teaching will be divorced from reality.

Yang Jun: We're going to record numbers today, Li Xiguang. Digitalization is the latest trend of media development. When you come to our studio today, can you feel our intentions?

Li Xiguang: Your studio looks simple, but simplicity is the most beautiful thing. The more high-tech develops, the simpler it is to use and the simpler it looks.

Yang Jun: I read your resume. I know that you have been a reporter in Xinhua News Agency for many years and participated in a series of important reports. What are the reports?

Li Xiguang: I worked as a reporter for 1 1 year in Xinhua News Agency. I have been a science journalist, a cultural journalist, an archaeological journalist and a political journalist. I have been a journalist at home and abroad. What I will never forget is my three-year exploration of the oceans, grasslands and deserts along the Silk Road.

Yang Jun: You said three years.

Li Xiguang: 13 years ago, I spent nearly three years investigating and interviewing some archaeologists from the Maritime Silk Road, grasslands, deserts, nomadic routes and Buddhist routes.

Yang Jun: What year was that?

Li Xiguang: From 1990 to 1993. At that time, he was still at Xinhua News Agency.

News keeps looking for good stories on the road.

Yang Jun: Why did you think of interviewing the Silk Road?

Li Xiguang: It happened that UNESCO had this project at that time, which required the participation of journalists and scholars. In the end, I was selected as a young scholar to participate.

Yang Jun: How did you spend three years on the Silk Road? Three years is precious time.

Li Xiguang: This is also an opportunity. It happened that UNESCO Silk Road Expedition needed a reporter. I was chosen by them to follow the expedition as a young scholar, set out from Venice and set foot on the Maritime Silk Road by boat. King Qaboos of Sultan of Oman, an Arab country, provided us with a boat, and we drifted along the Baltic Sea route of Kyle for half a year. Later, we set out from Kobdo, the westernmost part of Outer Mongolia, and toured along the ancient nomadic route. In the grassland route interview, we started from Turkmenistan along the route of Genghis Khan's eastward expedition, along the borders of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, crossed the deserts and grasslands of Central Asia, and passed through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and other places. We visited Shiva City in Arabian Nights, the famous ruins of the kingdom of Khorezm and the ancient city of Samarkand. This is an adventurous and romantic trip.

Yang Jun: At that time, your ship drifted at sea for half a year, but it didn't drift to an unreachable place? (Laughter)

Li Xiguang: No, because the equipment we used on the research ship on the Maritime Silk Road is as high-tech as the equipment in your studio today. It was provided by the Sultan of Oman and was his private frigate. Maritime communication uses the most advanced maritime satellites and fresh water purification equipment. Along the way, we stopped at 22 ancient ports where Arab sailor Sinbad, China navigator Zheng He and Venetian businessman Kyle Polo stopped.

Yang Jun: Actually, these three years have been very rich in your life.

Li Xiguang: This may be a rare ideological wealth and academic resource for any journalist or communication scholar. Perhaps, this may also arouse the jealousy of individual peers. Today, it's almost impossible to go down the road I walked like that. Although we live in the era of global communication today, we have communication equipment that I couldn't imagine at that time. However, due to today's war, from Afghanistan to Central Asia, from Chechnya to today's Iraq war, it is impossible to have such a dialogue between the East and the West and the spread of ideas and culture. At that time, the name of the expedition was "The Road of Dialogue between East and West", the Silk Road expedition. Today, although we live in the so-called era of globalization, what people see in this era is more the conflict between eastern and western civilizations, and even the war between eastern and western civilizations and religions. For example, the conflict between the United States and Iraq, in the deep sense of culture, is the conflict between western Christian civilization and eastern Islamic civilization. Professor Huntington of Harvard University predicted this conflict several years ago. 10 years ago, people lived in an era of non-globalization, but that era paid more attention to dialogue and symmetrical communication. At that time, I went to 23 countries in half a year, basically all of them were entry visas. It will be difficult and dangerous to continue like this today. For example, do you dare to walk into Afghanistan and Iraq today to interview the greatest traffic avenue and civilized exchange avenue in the history of human civilization?

Yang Jun: What do you see on this traffic avenue?

Li Xiguang: No matter the grassland route or the desert route, I brought a very old map and Xuanzang's The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang. That was an interview note written by Tang Xuanzang when he went to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to learn from the scriptures. It records many ancient place names along the way. Compare today's place names with those of the Tang Xuanzang era, and you will find many interesting stories. At the same time, I also brought a book, The Travels of Marco Polo, which recorded the ancient customs along the way.

Yang Jun: You feel like a modern Kyle Poirot.

Li Xiguang: I'm learning how Xuanzang and Kyle Polo find and tell stories, and look for new and old stories on the road of communication between eastern and western civilizations. Looking for interesting ancient stories in today's reality. After three years of interviews and investigations, I published a book and an album with my friends.

Yang Jun: You also collected news reports along the way and sent them back to China?

Li Xiguang: I send news to Beijing almost every day, whether in the desert, on the grassland or at sea. Communication was really a big problem at that time. Therefore, I envy the excellent communication skills of journalists nowadays. For example, I interviewed on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. At that time, after the war, there was almost no communication equipment in the local area. I walked to the town of Termez, which is an important town where the Soviet Red Army withdrew from Afghanistan. There is a border river between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. There is a tomb of Soviet Red Army martyrs in Tajikistan, which was a Soviet soldier killed when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. I want to publish in this place, but I can't send it back. Although that place is only a few hundred kilometers away from Xinjiang, China.

Yang Jun: At that time, there was no Internet.

Li Xiguang: It's impossible to have Internet or even send faxes and telegrams. At that time, the leader of our expedition was a black man who was about to leave us for France. I asked him to take my manuscript to Paris and fax it to Beijing through Paris. You can see the snow peaks in Tianshan Mountain in Tajikistan, but you can't read the manuscript.

Yang Jun: If you can't cross this mountain, everything will be different.

Li Xiguang: The transmission technology is very backward.