The expo "Silk Road on Fingertips" featuring women's handicrafts was organized by the Shaanxi Women's Federation. (Photo : www.womenofchina.cn)
The three-day "Silk Road on Fingertips" expo in Shaanxi Province's Xi'an has recently showcased women's handicrafts from home and abroad.
The show featured works crafted by women from Iran, Sri Lanka, Turkey and from seven Chinese provinces along the ancient network of trade and cultural routes, Silk Road.
The expo comes in timely as Chinese President Xi Jinping is boosting the country's economic and cultural relations with neighboring nations through his "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" projects.
"Silk Road on Fingertips" was designed to boost cooperation and trade among the women along the Silk Road. The expo also served as an avenue to learn various handcrafting techniques employed by the participants.
The expo's spectators witnessed an array of fine embroidery works, homespun shoes, patchworks, and straw-plaits and other handmade products.
Wang Xin, one of the visitors, remarked, "The combination of traditional handicrafts and novel designs has made artifacts much more modern and gained popularity among more and more people."
The expo revolved around the theme, "Innovating Cooperation Modes, Sharing Silk-Road Prosperity."
"A thousand years ago, the Silk Road connected the West and the East. Nowadays, the Belt and Road project has ushered in a major era for Asian and European countries to share the most common interests and enjoy the biggest cooperation opportunities," Shang Hong, vice president of the expo organizer Shaanxi Women's Federation, said.
Shang is also optimistic that the "expo will help Shaanxi women and women of other countries to carry out a broader cooperation at higher levels."
Currently, Shaanxi has established 35 provincial-level handicraft production demonstration hubs and over 600 women's handicraft cooperatives. These have provided employment opportunities for around 300,000 women.
"Handicrafts have become a major channel for women to increase their income," Shang added.
