Report on ISU History Culture Professional Committee 2019

Mr. Zhao Feng

Vice-chairman of ISU

Director of ISU History Culture Professional Committee

Curator of China National Silk Museum

13 experts and scholars from Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Greece, and China joined the International Silk Union(ISU) History Culture Professional Committee. In December 2017, the first meeting of the committee was held in Lyon, France. In November 2018, the second meeting was held in Buyeo, South Korea. As the vice chairman of ISU, and the director of ISU History Culture Professional Committee, I and my unit China National Silk Museum have been committed to maintaining relations between members and strengthening exchanges and cooperation among members to promote the research and inheritance of history and culture in the international silk industry. 

 2019 Work Report 

1. Holding the 4th IASSRT Symposium and the 3rd meeting of ISU History Culture Professional Committee

From September 21 to October 2, 2019, the China National Silk Museum went to Russia to co-sponsor the 4th International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textile(IASSRT) Symposium and the 5th Council Meeting. China National Silk Museum, as the IASSRT chairman unit, participated in 4th IASSRT Symposium “Silk Road: Textiles as Historical Sources”. This year, a total of 38 experts and scholars from 18 countries gathered around the theme of symposium, made the academic reports on "Caucasus on the Silk Road", "Textiles in Medieval Archaeological Sites in Europe", "Museum Collections and Archaeological Discoveries in East Asia", "Textile Technology in Historical Texts", "Textile Patterns as World Models", "Textiles are Materialized Policies: Textiles in the Context of Diplomacy, Religion, and International Relations" and "Tradition and Innovation of Textiles".

In addition, at noon on the 25, September, the 3rd meeting of ISU History Culture Professional Committee was also successfully held. At the meeting, director Zhao Feng introduced the work of the committee in the past year, afterwards, the participants spoke separately to discuss the work of the committee and the future direction, and reached a consensus on strengthen cooperation between members.

2. Holding the Exhibition of “Life along the Silk Road: 13 Stories during the Great Era”

On 21 June, 2019, "Life along the Silk Road: 13 Stories during the Great Era" was held in China National Silk Museum. The exhibition was hosted by the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, Co-organized by Bureau of Cultural Relics of Zhejiang, Liaoning, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang, the Russian Hermitage Museum had a special cooperation, and the Chinese National Silk Museum organized it. 13 domestic museums, research institutes, archeological teams and other units have participated in the exhibition.

The opening ceremony read the "Hangzhou Initiative for Spreading and Promoting the Spirit of the Silk Road" jointly issued by the IASSRT and Museum Professional Committee along the Silk Road, China Museum Association, and proposed that within one week of June 22 each year, plan and implement a series of theme activities such as exhibitions, performances, reports, knowledge contests in the heritage sites along the Silk Road with related culture and museum institution, using a variety of channels to spread widely around the world, promoting cross-cultural dialogue along the Silk Road. At the same time, build a Silk Road cultural exchange and cooperation mechanism, vigorously carry out research, protection, and display projects on the Silk Road cultural heritage, and increase efforts to discover the connotation of the Silk Road, recognize the role of the Silk Road, and protect the heritage of the Silk Road.

3. Establishing International Silk Institute

In order to further increase the international influence of silk culture, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of silk culture, and promote the construction of "cultural Zhejiang", under the guidance of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Zhejiang Provincial Education Department, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and China National Silk Museum jointly established the International Silk Institute and it was inaugurated on June 21, 2019. The two sides will use silk as a link and strive to build the institute into an academic highland with distinctive silk characteristics, first-class disciplines and significant international reputations.

2020 Work Plan

1. Holding the 5th IASSRT Symposium and the 4th meeting of ISU History Culture Professional Committee

The 5th IASSRT Symposium is expected to be held in Italy in 2020, the symposium will focus on Italian silk heritage. As one of the countries with the longest silk history and the most developed industry in European, Italy has always been the focus of research in silk discipline. The Italian Silk Office is also one of the important member units of ISU. Therefore, I hope to take advantage of this symposium with the assistance of ISU to analyze the connotation of Italian silk, strengthen interaction and cooperation in various fields to promote the healthy development of the world silk industry. At that time, the 4th meeting of ISU History Culture Professional Committee will also be held.

2. Hold the first Silk Road Week

The Silk Road Week is planned in response to the framework of the "Hangzhou Initiative". It is currently expected to be held at the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou from June 19 to 25, 2020, during which various types of events will be held with the theme of Silk Road, including theme exhibition of “the past and present life of the Silk Road”, which will in turn tell the history of East and West traffic, Ferdinand Von Richthofen’s seven trips to China, UNESCO's five visits to the Silk Road and Silk Road's application for World Cultural Heritage. Then, the museums along the Silk Road will be invited to select a cultural relic along the Silk Road and tell the outside world the story behind them. The Silk Road Cultural Heritage Annual Report 2019 will also be released within Silk Road Week. The report will start with the summary and major events, and divided into four major sections to introduce the top ten exhibitions, ten archeological discoveries, ten books and ten research results on the Silk Road. In addition, the Silk Road Week International Symposium and the Silk Road Theme Curator Workshop will be held.

3. Operating International Silk Institute

The International Silk Institute will be operated officially in 2020, and set up the "Silk Road and World Silk Research Center".

4. Strengthen the interaction with Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles 

The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Thailand is one of the member of IASSRT, China National Silk Museum hopes to strengthen interaction on the basis of the good cooperation already existing, especially the 6th IASSRT symposium is expected to be held in Thailand in 2021.

5. Building an Interactive Map of the Silk Road

In order to promote the construction of the Silk Road Cultural Relic Database, discover the connotation of the Silk Road, recognize the role of the Silk Road, and protect the heritage of the Silk Road, in 2020, the National Silk Museum will rely on IASSRT and Museum Professional Committee along the Silk Road of China Museum Association, Organize museums at home and abroad to jointly build interactive maps of cultural relic related to the Silk Road. Hoping this work can receive strong support from the entire ISU, and welcome all ISU members to actively tell stories about cultural relics related to the Silk Road to world.

As the director of ISU History Culture Professional Committee, I will combine the activities of China National Silk Museum, actively cooperate with the ISU works, and continue to implement the follow-up work of ISU History Culture Professional Committee.