From Nov. 5th to Nov. 9th, the 3rd IASSRT (International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles) symposium as well as the 4th IASSRT board meeting “Silk Road Textiles: Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage” was successfully held in Korea National University of Cultural Heritage (KNUCH) in Buyeo, Korea. The symposium was hosted by IASSRT, organized by Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, China National Silk Museum (CNSM), and supported by the Korean National Intangible Heritage Center (KNIHC), National Museum of Korea (NMK), and Kyung-woon Museum. More than 130 scholars and representatives from more than 10 countries, including China, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, uzbekistan, Indonesia, the United States, South Korea and Japan, attended the symposium.

On the morning of November 6, the symposium officially opened in the academic lecture hall of KNUCH. Dr. Sim Yeon-ok, the rotating IASSRT President of 2018 as well as professor of KNUCH welcomed the arrival of attendees. Kim yeongmo, president of KNUCH, Dr. Feng Zhao, President of IASSRT and China National Silk Museum, and Bae Kidong, director of National Museum of Korea, delivered speeches respectively. At the same time, the exhibition "reproduction of Korean traditional clothing and textile" co-hosted by KNUCH and the Kyung-woon Museum opened on the campus.

Dr. Sim Yeon-ok, the rotating IASSRT President of 2018, hosted the opening ceremony and Dr. Feng Zhao, President of IASSRT and China National Silk Museum delivered a speech

Guests attending the IASSRT opening ceremony cut the ribbon for the exhibition

In the two-day-long symposium, scholars presented new research results on the theme of “Silk Road Textiles: Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage” in eight sections: General History of Textiles on the Silk Road, Textiles on the Korean Traditions, Textiles on the Eastern Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road Textiles, Textiles on the Northwest Silk Road, Textiles on the Steppe Silk Road, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Textiles in Asia, New Research on the Silk Road Textiles. There is a question session for each section. Participants put forward questions and suggestions based on the repor. Both participants and the speaker said that they had gained a lot. In addition, professional simultaneous interpretation equipment is provided for attendees.

The symposium provided to a diversified platform for academic exchange. During the study tour, the attendees visited the Korean traditional textile and clothing exhibition in KNUCH, the whole process of weaving Mosi (fine ramie) , the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, in Transmission Hall of Hansan Mosi and conducted in-depth communication with Bang Yeon-ok, the inheritor of Hansan Mosi. 

The attendees also visited the "Intangible heritage of Korea and China Silk Weaving" exhibition jointly held by CNSM and KNIHC, and inspected the gold foil, knot art and quilting techniques demonstrated by Korean national intangible cultural inheritors; Communicated with experts in different fields in the exhibition hall and restoration room of NMK; Visited the Kyung-woon Museum, and listened to the report on Korean traditional clothes, such as "Korean traditional five colors" and "color research in Korean clothing".

Visited the fiber department of KNUCH

To investigate the production technology of Hansan Mosi

Participated in the opening ceremony of "Intangible heritage of Korea and China Silk Weaving" exhibition in KNIHC

Visit the restoration room of NMK

Visit Kyung-woon Museum

Another important part of the symposium was the 4th annual IASSRT board meeting on the evening of 5 November. On the meeting, director Feng Zhao, as the President of the alliance, introduced the work done by the league since its 2017 annual conference and main work in 2018. Representatives from 13 alliance agencies and invited individual members spoke respectively to explore the work of the alliance and its future direction; In the end, the meeting reached the following consensus: the British museum and St. Etienne museum of Industry and Art of France were joined as institutions, while Robert Urschler, chairman of Hogan Museum Foundation of Switzerland, Ho Zhaohua from college of textiles and clothing of Fujen University, and Helen Persson from Nordic museum were joined as individual members. Members of the alliance should continue to strengthen their cooperation with each other and explore new cooperation among members. Efforts should be made to build the alliance website, edit and publish publications, and launch the silk map of world. The 4th IASSRT symposium will be held in Russia in 2019. Zvezdana Dode of the institute of Nasledie (Stravropol) Ltd., Southern Scientific Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences, as the future rotating chairperson, gave a brief introduction to the work of next year. Overall, this council meeting demonstrates that IASSRT is a dynamic and sustainable academic alliance, which will play an important role in One Belt And One Road's cultural cooperation in the future.

IASSRT held its fourth board meeting

In addition, the 2nd meeting of the international silk union of history and culture committee (ISU) was also held on the evening of Nov. 7th. At the meeting, director Feng Zhao introduced the work of the committee in the past year. Participants then addressed the work of the committee and future direction. Finally, the meeting achieved the following goals: the commission developed four new members from China, Switzerland and Greece respectively: Wang Le, associate professor from Fashion and Design College of Donghua University; Zhong Bingzhang, director of Chengdu Shu Brocade Museum, Robert Urschler, president of Foundation of Swiss Horgen Museum Robert; Sophia, Z, chairman of culture foundation of Piraeus bank, Greece (PIOP).

The 2nd meeting of the ISU

On the evening of November 9, Hyosung Company held the IASSRT symposium closing ceremony. Chairman Hyun-Joon Cho attended the closing ceremony and delivered a speech on behalf of his mother, who was once director of the Kyung-woon and now director of the development committee of Kyung-woon. President of IASSRT Zhao Feng, rotating president Sim Yeon-ok, and future rotating president Zvezdana Dode expressed their congratulations and thanks to all participants for preparing for the seminar. Zhang Zhonghua, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in South Korea, Li Shaopeng, First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy and other officials also attended the closing ceremony.