Zhao Feng (art historian)

Zhao Feng (; born 1961) is a Chinese textile specialist with a special interest in Silk Road textiles. He is Director of the China National Silk Museum, the largest silk museum in the world.
Education.
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.
Career.
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. In 2015 he proposed the founding of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles, and became its first President.
Research.
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.