Keeping a precious legacy alive

After graduating from the Suzhou Silk Institute of Technology in 1982, Dai began to deeply cultivate the weaving principles and techniques in Nanjing Yunjin Research Institute.

Later in 2010, Dai established a company in Nanjing, engaging in the research, replication, development, and weaving of yunjin and ancient silk varieties.

Even now, he still works six days a week on the front line of inheritance.

Dai has rewoven the imperial yunjin relics from the Palace Museum, the sha (plain gauze) gown from the Mawangdui, a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), as well as imperial edicts and other cultural relics from the China National Silk Museum and the Suzhou Silk Museum.

He has also been invited by the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage to reweave silk relics unearthed in South Korea.