A theme banner of 2022 Silk Road Week (Banner/China National Silk Museum)

"Silk Roads", or westerly known as "Seidenstrassen", a concept first invented by the German geologist and explorer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877, has become a metaphor for European and cultural interchange. Previously largely commercial and now more diverse, the Silk Roads provided the channel for all sorts of creative exchange between tremendously diverse peoples and cultures. 

As an important legacy as well as an up-to-date initiative, Silk Roads are invaluable world heritage to be celebrated for reminding the world of the importance of cultural diversity and cross-cultural communication. 

Flags showing the theme of the 2022 Silk Road Week (Photo/China National Silk Museum)

Following a preliminary press conference at the China National Silk Museum, the Silk Road Week, a weeklong initiative introduced by the Chinese cultural heritage community to mark and celebrate the anniversary of the nomination of the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor as a UNESCO World Heritage site on June 2014, kicks off its third edition in Hangzhou on July 8, 2022. 

Two previous editions of Silk Road Week, focusing on the themes of "The Silk Roads: Mutual Learning for Future Collaboration" and "Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development" took place in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

The theme for the third edition of Silk Road Week will be "National Integration and Common Prosperity". The program of events taking place in Hangzhou and beyond include themed exhibitions, themed courses, academic seminars, and lectures. This year, Qinghai Province is invited as the guest province and Uzbekistan, as the guest country.

The unveiling of the book "The Thematic Collection of Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Roads: Textiles and Clothing"

(Photo/China National Silk Museum)

The opening ceremony of 2022 Silk Road Week held at the China National Silk Museum on 8 July, launched the Annual Report of Cultural Heritage on the Silk Roads 2021 and the exhibition "Silk and the Silk Roads: from Hangzhou to Samarkand" in collaboration with the Samarkand State Museum-Reserve of Uzbekistan. The book "The Thematic Collection of Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Roads: Textiles and Clothing", a co-publication between UNESCO and the China National Silk Museum was also unveiled at the opening ceremony. 

Following the opening ceremony, the Silk Road Online Museum (SROM) night show including an online curating competition award ceremony, Qinghai local song and dance performance, and an Uzbek costume show was also held at the same venue as the China National Silk Museum. 

The SROM project, which was debuted during the second Silk Road Week in 2021, is initiated by the China National Silk Museum and partners with museums worldwide to compile an online platform comprised of four distinct categories, Digital Collection, Digital Exhibition, Digital Knowledge, and Online Curating. 

Homepage of the Silk Road Online Museum

Being important places of world memories, museums can build greater public credit and profile in the eye of society and people to answer some of the pivotal questions concerning the whole world, such as cultural diversity, cross-cultural communication, the future of mankind, etc., and to bring artists, curators, archivists and everyday citizens into a creative space and create something that will shape the future of the world. The SROM is set up to make the “museum-going culture” an important cultural routine of people’s daily life in today’s more digitalized era. 

2022 Silk Road Week will be held from 8 to 14 July and the closing ceremony will be held at the Qinghai Provincial Museum on July 14. 

For further details about the 2022 Silk Road Week, please subscribe to the official page of the China National Silk Museum at https://www.chinasilkmuseum.com 

Reporter: Ye Ke