Qingkai Ma is a PhD candidate from Zhejiang University. Under the supervision of Professor Wu Zongjie, he has been doing critical heritage studies, aiming at finding discursive resources and proper ways of re-narrating Chinese heritage and establishing indigenous heritage discourse. He has been participating several heritage conservation projects in Zoucheng, Shandong province where Mencius was born and in Hangzhou which used to be the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 A. D.-1279 A. D.). These research projects provide opportunities for him to reach out from the Ivory Tower and participate in conserving urban heritage in these cities. The projects arise from the current needs of these cities to search for their cultural identity and to reactivate the past of the cities for future development. In his research he combines the following methodologies to make new meanings for different places by forming narratives based on different sorts of data: ethnographic field work, historical records including local gazetteers and discourse analysis, etc. His research involves lots of ethnographic field work and negotiation with different communities, government agencies and experts from other disciplines. Qingkai Ma has participated in writing two books entitled Interpreting the Belt and Road Intiative and 100 Questions & Answers About the Belt and Road Intiative. He wrote one chapter in the two books respectively in which he advocated deep understanding of cultures in the countries along the Belt and Road through in-depth ethnographic studies during the realization of the Belt and Road Initiative.