China and The World

Reading Guide for “The Courtesan’s Tale” from Life Along the Silk Road, by Susan Whitfield,

Director of the International Dunhuang Project, UC Press, 1999.

(Please note, this is a synthetic account, not a primary document. Whitfield, former director of the International Dunhuang project has created Larishka’s tale from a composite

of primary sources, this story is entirely plausible, and many of the specifics are documentable, but the narrative is created by Whitfield.)

1. How does Larishka’s life illustrate Tang Cosmopolitanism (Internationalism/Globalism)?

2. What are some of the ways that trade, politics, ethnicity and gender are related to each other in Larishka’s life?

3. What choices does Larishka have? What choices does she not have? What are her relationships with her partners like? How does she change over time? What is the role of sexuality and reproduction in her life? What role does appearance and adornment play?

4. What surprises you about this account? What questions do you have about it?