Stitch of history

Book celebrates 30th anniversary of silk museum and its growing cultural significance, Ma Zhenhuan reports.

The first book to comprehensively catalog the collection at the China National Silk Museum was released on International Museum Day on May 18.

The book, Highlights of the Collections in China National Silk Museum, which has research and educational significance in the fields of silk art, fashion, textile design, was published to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the museum, which is located in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Covering ancient to contemporary times, inside China and outside, the book describes how the museum started with its silk collection and expanded to modern textiles, contemporary designs, global fashions and other fields, gradually establishing a collection of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign textiles and clothing. All collections in the book are presented in high-definition pictures, with detailed introductions, which contain both artistic beauty and cultural meaning.

"For more than 25 years since the Metropolitan Museum of Art awarded Zhao Feng a Sylvan and Pamela Coleman Fellowship in 1997-98, several other members of the Department of Asian Art and I have benefited greatly from Zhao Feng's scholarly focus on China's extraordinary tradition of silk production," says Maxwell K. Hearn, director of the Asia department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Zhao, director of the China National Silk Museum, talks of its 30 years of ups and downs in another book, Research Museum Development Path of China National Silk Museum, from a research perspective.