Xinru Liu (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) teaches world history, the history of South Asia, and the history of Central Asia at the College of New Jersey in Ewing. She is associated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of History and Institute of World History. Among her many publications are The Silk Road in World History; Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communications, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads with Lynda Norene Shaffer; Silk and Religion: An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People in A.D. 600 –1200; and Ancient India and Ancient China.