The presentation and consultation of Jinshow World Silk Interactive Map (an information database and demonstration platform for silk cultural heritage) project were held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on December 12, 2022. The presenting meeting was moderated by Mehrdad Shabahang, the program specialist of the UNESCO Silk Road Program, and attended by experts from Paris and Lyon who have been studying the Silk Road and its ancient textiles.
The Jinshow World Silk Interactive Map project was originated from an international expert meeting on a joint project "Interactive Atlas of Silk Roads" held by UNESCO in Beijing in 2017 where relevant experts all over the world together launched the Atlas project, with “the Textiles and Clothing on the Silk Roads” volume as a pilot project. Afterward, Dr. Zhao Feng led the design and creation.
The Jinshow database, as a digital online platform, was launched by the China National Silk Museum in collaboration with Zhejiang University. The project team was led by more than 20 international experts. After three years' efforts, more than 12,830 pieces of world silk cultural heritage resources in seven categories have been collected, including artifacts, images, documents, techniques, sites, dyes, and fibers, presented in several languages, such as Chinese, English, French, Thai, Italian, and Uzbek.
After the demonstration, the participating experts commented that the Map is an impressive and useful database of textile. The information can be searched both by keywords and images. Experts can also upload the information to expand the online collective knowledge pool and make the platform grow. It was jointly recognized that this inspiring project would be beneficial to the future development of the Silk Roads studies and the exploration of intercultural dialogues.
Source: China National Silk Museum