Chinese Textiles from the Silk Road

For centuries, the Silk Road has been an important network of trade routes that has allowed for the exchange of silk and other goods, as well as of ideas and technologies between cultures across Asia and Europe. 

Zhao Feng, director of the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, presents recently excavated and conserved silk textiles from sites along the Silk Road. He shares new insight on fibers, dyes, weave structures, tailoring, and pattern designs featured in these textiles and discusses international collaborative initiatives, such as the Interactive Silk Map of the World and the Silk Road Online Museum.   

This lecture is part of the international Silk Road Week (June 18–24, 2021) initiated at the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, and joined by museums worldwide. 

The annual Pauline and Joseph Degenfelder Lecture is made possible through the Pauline and Joseph Degenfelder Family Endowment Fund. 

Zhao Feng is director of the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou; a board member of the Ethics Committee of the International Council of Museums (ETHCOM); a directing member of the Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA); and the president of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles (IASSRT). He specializes in the study of fabrics along the Silk Road based on interdisciplinary research that draws on the fields of science, anthropology, art history, archaeology, conservation, and cultural heritage studies.