Zhao Feng (art historian)

Born in 1961, Zhao studied at the Zhejiang Institute of Silk Textile (now Zhejiang Sci-Tech University), earning a BA in Dyeing and Finishing (1978–82) and MA in Chinese Silk History (1982–84). He did his PhD in Textile History of China, at the China Textile University (now Donghua University) (1995-1997), a student of Zhu Xinyu 朱新予 and Jiang Youlong 蒋猷龙.

Zhao remained at the Zhejiang Institute of Silk Textile as an assistant researcher. In 1991, he became curator and researcher at the China National Silk Museum, and has remained with this museum since, with long periods overseas as a visiting researcher, studying Chinese textiles in museums around the world: at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1997–98), Royal Ontario Museum (1999), and British Museum (2006). He also holds the following positions in Chinese and international organisations: Director of Chinese Textiles Identification Protection Center; professor and PhD supervisor of Donghua University; member of the National Committee of Cultural Relics; council member of Centre International d'Etude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA); director of Dunhuang Studies of Zhejiang province; representative of 11th National People's Congress; one of Zhejiang Provincial “Super Experts”; director of Key Scientific Research Base of Textile Conservation, SACH.[2] In 2015 he proposed the founding of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles, and became its first President.[3]

Zhao's research is in the history of Chinese silk; identification and conservation of textile relics; cultural communication between China and the world along the Silk Road. He has published extensively in both Chinese and English.

• 2014 Global Textile Encounters (ed. with Marie-Louise Nosch and Lotika Varadarajan)[4]
• 2014 Textiles from Astana and Buzak : with a glossary based on the document from Dunhuang and Turfan (with Wang Le)
• 2013 Textiles as Money on the Silk Road (with Helen Wang, Valerie Hansen, Masaharu Arakawa, Rong Xinjiang, Angela Sheng, Eric Trombert, Wang Binghua, Wang Le, Xu Chang), special issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society[5]
• 2012 Chinese Silks (with Wengying Li, Juanjuan Chen, James C.Y. Watt, Dieter Kuhn, Nengfu Huang, Hao Peng) (Yale University Press)[6][7]
• 2007-ongoing—The Textiles from Dunhuang Project to research and publish all textiles from Dunhuang has resulted in three publications so far, of which Zhao is the editor-in-chief: Textiles from Dunhuang in UK Collections,Textiles from Dunhuang in French Collections and Textiles from Dunhuang in Russian Collections.[8]
• 2004 Style from the steppes : silk costumes and textiles from the Liao and Yuan periods 10th to 13th century (with Anne E Wardwell; Mark Holborn; Donald Dinwiddie; Barbara Mathes Gallery)

• Zhao Feng on Worldcat
• Textile Archaeology on the Silk Road: Comparison of textiles found in Northwest China and Israel - lecture by Zhao Feng, 2017
• Official website of the China National Silk Museum
• Interview with Zhao Feng in HALI Magazine 194