Centuries-old silk relics from East and West
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A coat from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) made of dark satin material and embroidered with red-crowned cranes. Orchids, bamboo, peonies and butterflies are woven with golden threads throughout the coat.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Unearthed ancient Chinese garments from Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with faded colors.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Silk woven ancient Chinese round fans.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Silk relics from the regions over the Silk Road.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Silk relics from the regions over the Silk Road.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
The faucet of a jacquard machine invented in Europe during the industrial revolution.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
Chinese silk qipao from modern times.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE
A new exhibition at the Shanghai History Museum opened on Friday with silk relics from China and the West that date back centuries.
Silk-weaving has a unique place in Chinese culture and history, and its influence from the industrial revolution in the West shed light on the fascinating potential of cultural exchanges via the Silk Road.
The exhibition features 139 silk relics from the Jiangnan region of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and areas along the Silk Road, taken from the archives of the Shanghai History Museum, China Silk Museum, Suzhou Silk Museum and Nanjing Museum.
Wang Shuizhong, a collector from Taiwan who once donated more than 300 Shanghai qipao to the museum, contributed an ancient Chinese painting interwoven with silk in the style of Chinese Gu embroidery to the exhibition.
Foreign relics in the exhibit come from countries such as Turkey, France, Italy and Iran, and include the faucet of a jacquard machine, a European invention during the industrial revolution that made silk-weaving significantly more efficient.
The exhibition is on the first floor of the museum's east building on Nanjing Road W. and runs through March 21. Admission is free.
Due to COVID-19, the museum limits the number of daily visitors to 5,000, and reservations are required through Dianping.
