Exhibition place：Textile Conservation Gallery, CNSM

Exhibition time：2014.6 - 2014.10

The soft and sumptuous silk is the main product traded between east and west. Among those Chinese silk with exotic decorative patterns, one part aimed at Chinese marketas “foreign taste” fashion, while another part catered for the western buyers as export products. Despite China’s long history of exporting silk, the general concept of “export silk” means Chinese silk produced for western market since Ming and Qing dynasties. Institutions like China National Silk Museum (referred as CNSM in the following) have been dedicated to collecting, studying and preserving export silk for many years. Collections of export silk in CNSM boast high artistic,academic and historical value. Not only showing Chinese traditional style and aesthetic taste, but also sharing western flavor, export silk embodies the encounter of Chinese and western culture under the background of maritime trade between China and western countries in 18^th and 19^thcenturies. They enter the European market and are well received; they sweep the whole European society and affect every aspect of European lives; they bring a new form of aesthetics, a new taste from different culture and a new fashion.