The studies of InnerAsian societies and cultures have very close relations with the Belt and Road development, to which we need to research and understand. In the holistic arrangement of the Belt and Road development, InnerAsia’s geographic position is critically important, by the meaning of its linking role in the Silk Road. At present, the related academic studies on InnerAsia in China are paying a lot of attention to the studies of regional politics and international relations, but with only a few focuses on the themes of InnerAsian societies and cultures. The author argues that the studies of the InnerAsian area have to be undertaken by various academic disciplines, with philological studies as their bases accompanied by field work and contemporary studies, that is to study InnerAsian societies and cultures by approaching both from basic philological and applying methods. From the point of view of the construction of distinguished academic disciplines, the InnerAsian Studies are no doubt potential options for us, the universities in Western China, to choose, for they have the unsubstitutable positive role in our ways to cultivate advance academic disciplines. The promotion of the InnerAsian studies could not only help us to provide more chances to teachers to undertake their research activities and push forward the construction of distinguished academic disciplines, but also could serve well the Belt and Road development policy of the state.

the Belt and Road; InnerAsia; InnerAsian sociocultural studies; universities in Western China, unique academic disciplines; “Double Distinguished Universities”