HANGZHOU, China -- On December 12, 2022, 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. The presenting meeting was moderated by Mehrdad Shabahang, the Programme Specialist of the UNESCO Silk Road Programme, and attended by experts from Paris and Lyon who have been studying the Silk Road and its ancient textiles.
During the meeting, Dr. Feng Zhao, the Project Director first introduced the origin and development of the project. It is 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 from all over the world together launched the Atlas, with the Textiles and Clothing on the Silk Roads volume as a pilot project. Afterward, Dr. Zhao led the design and creation of the Jinshow World Silk Interactive Map Project, kicking off the joint map project as the first subject.
The digital basis of the Map is the Jinshow Platform, launched by China National Silk Museum in collaboration with Zhejiang University. The data collection was led by more than 20 international experts. After three years' efforts, the project team has collected more than 12,830 pieces of world silk cultural heritage resources in seven categories, including artifacts, images, documents, techniques, sites, dyes, and fibers, presented in 6 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, and the spatio-temporal development evolution rules of materials and techniques could be founded through the map. 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.
Website of Jinshow World Silk Interactive Map project: http://jinshow.chinasilkmuseum.com/home
