In the Afro-Eurasian core, from Egypt to China, writing emerged, developed, and was then transferred to the periphery, for instance, to the German-speaking world and to Japan. This process loosely synchronised the politics and literature of these two cultures, thereby explaining the striking similarity between song anthologies compiled in both regions, at a time when the two cultures had no direct interaction and also differed greatly. The similarities and the differences between the two cultures were presented by describing the networks that consisted of different factors such as power, gender, and media, and in which the songs circulated.