The Beauty of Silk—Universal Beauty

Fei Jianming at Niya Site

In early 2018, Zhejiang TV Station International Channel determined to make a large humanity-themed documentary. The producer and director invited me to drink tea together and chat about silk. All of us were excited at this topic, and they believed that they got a “treasure”. By this chance, I became an advisor of the documentary titled Oriental Splendor - Silk, and my work units Hangzhou Silk Culture and Brand Research Center, and International Silk Union became the supporters.     

The camera crew of Oriental Splendor - Silk went to Italy, France, British, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Nigera, Kenya, Jordan, and Zhejiang in China in 2018, and had made an 180-hour video. The video has been edited into a 90-minute three-episode documentary skillfully, having distilled a silk blockbuster of the widest perspective, highest purposiveness, highest plainness and vividness, and highest value of transmission and collection.

The documentary received many rave reviews after being put on show. To propagandize and popularize the theme and artistic conception of the documentary more widely, Zhejiang TV Station International Channel and Hangzhou Oriental Silk Culture and Brand Research Center (renamed) jointly invited specialists, experts, entrepreneurs, and teachers and students of silk colleges to write review articles on the documentary. More than 140 articles were contributed, among which 13 articles have been published in provincial and municipal newspapers and periodicals, and over 30 articles in new media.

To maximize the propaganda effect of the documentary, Hangzhou Oriental Silk Culture and Brand Research Center and Zhejiang TV Station International Channel planned to print a commemorative album on the documentary. For the album, the chief inspector of the International Channel invited me to write a preface. I agreed with pleasure, and wrote a preface titled “The Beauty of Silk—Universal Beauty”.

Everyone knows silk is beautiful, but cannot specify where the beauty of silk lies. Generally speaking, the beauty of silk relates to the formal beauty of silk in the first place. Silk products differ in thousands of ways, are graceful and beautiful, and are a feast for the eyes. Throughout the ages, men of literature and writing are never niggardly with their praise on silk, and the review articles on the documentary are full of phrases giving rise to unlimited reverie, such as 天工造物(swan-shaped), 霓裳艳影(seduction and beautiful shadows), 流光溢彩(flowing light and color), 灿若云霞(rosy clouds), 精致典雅(exquisite elegance), 瑰丽轻盈(magnificent and lithe), (graceful and secluded), 曼妙窈窕(lustrous and brilliant), 柔顺优雅(soft and elegant), 悠远温润(profound and mild), and so on.

Is the beauty of silk limited to formal beauty? The answer is of course no. The beauty of silk also relates to inner beauty and cultural beauty. Silk was originated from the place of the Chinese territory over 5,000 years ago, and has been spread all other the world via the Silk Road to become closely linked with people around the world. The silk industry is helpful for people to overcome poverty and become rich. As stated in the King Hui of Liang, Mencius (Volume I): “Plant mulberries in the courtyard of a 5-mu house, and the ones older than 50 can wear silks.” This shows that mulberry growing and silkworm breeding had been being a good way to get rid of poverty. In the great and profound Chinese culture of long history, the idioms and their stories related to silk like锦绣前程 (bright prospect), 锦绣年华 (wonderful years), 锦绣河山 (land of splendors), 锦上添花 (icing on the cake), and 衣锦还乡 (return home after getting fame or money) have condensed dreams of many people.

The beauty of silk is also related to spiritual beauty of silk. As an old saying goes, “Silkworms of spring weave until dead”, which tells the persistence and utter devotion of silkworms. The roles in the documentary, including Gu Shuie, Shi Aqin, Bun Rany, Zoe Sachi, Bernhard, Frederic, Deborah, Bianchi, Daniele, Liang Yujia, Bao Wenqi, Guo Pei, Dai Jian, Xu Dinglong, Wang Pengcheng, Zhang Guoqiang, Tu Hongyan, and Zhao Feng, all were on a mission relating to silk, and they are collectively called silk people. Many silk people, during their engagement with silk, will be unconsciously influenced by the spirit of selflessness and dedication of silkworms of spring, and gradually form the moralities of diligence, self-absorption, persistence, and never leaving or forsaking. Regardless of difficulties and hardships of silk industry, silk people will never give up the pursuit of beauty. They are like a camel team in the desert, crossing the obstruction of sand dunes and heading to oases courageously. From the silk people appearing in the documentary, we can perceive the spiritual features of silk people.

In my opinion, the essence of the beauty of silk is the emotional of “universal beauty”. The school motto of Minzu University of China is “美美与共 知行合一 (universal beauty and knowledge-action unity)”. The “美美与共 (universal beauty)” is excerpted from the 16-character proverbs of Mr. Fei Xiaotong, the chancellor of Minzu University of China, “各美其美、美人之美、美美与共、天下大同 (a person should learn to appreciate the beauty he/she created, and appreciate the beauty created by others with an inclusive attitude, so as to combine their own beauty with others to realize universal beauty as desired)”. Nations in the world should respect, appreciate and praise others’ culture, and should take a placid and modest attitude, which is the “character of noble people” called by ancient Chinese people. The documentary records a lot of behaviors and feelings of “universal beauty”. Over 2,000 years ago, China’s silk goods and silk production technology were spread all over the world continuously. The Antonio Ratti Foundation in Italy has collections of ancient Chinese silk garments, and Italian silk experts came over to Hangzhou for passing on technical skills of post-dyeing finishing of silk. Deborah, a British fashion designer, has designed a Qipao meticulously and participated in the Global Qipao Design Contest in Hangzhou. A Chinese fashion designer named Guo pei was awarded with the prize of top 100 most influential people in the globe in 2016 by the TIME after his haute couture made a stage pose at the fashion week in Paris. The Bernhard from Switzerland went to Indonesia to inherit the beautiful “Sonkat” at the expense of their old-age pension. Zhao Feng, the curator of China National Silk Museum, was determined to go to the Great Britain to make a continuation of the History of Science and Technology in China—Weaving. Bianchi, the then president of Italian Silk Office, proposed to set up the world silk organization in China, and the established International Silk Union reached “World Silk Hangzhou Consensus” in Hangzhou, China. All this reflects the emotional beauty of silk of “universal beauty”. There is no international boundary or geopolitical conflict for silk industry, but appreciation for and compliment on the beauty of silk and the mood and arrangement of creating and innovating the beauty of silk via concerted effort, appreciating and spreading the beauty of silk, and realizing “universal beauty and knowledge-action unity”.

Silk is a cause related to beauty. If we move from the beauty of silk to spiritual beauty and emotional beauty, and people in all walks of life can comprehend and learn the spiritual and emotional beauty and do “appreciate self-created beauty, and appreciate the beauty created by others with an inclusive attitude, so as to combine their own beauty with others”, the world is bound to become more harmonious and beautiful. This is exactly the central theme of the documentary. The commemorative album is made for spreading the spirit and emotional of “The Beauty of Silk—Universal Beauty”.

Fei Jianming

President of Hangzhou Oriental Silk Culture and Brand Research Center

Secretary-general of International Silk Union

August 8, 2019