Once a bridge connecting the cultures of the East and West, the ancient Silk Road is still generating great inspiration for Chinese artists. Works by a number of new artists in western China have been assembled and put on show in Beijing's "Today Gallery", under the title "Ancient Threads, Newly Woven".

78 paintings by contemporary artists from China's western region have been gathered under the roof of the "Today Gallery", highlighting the multi-cultural aspects of the Silk Road, the ancient caravan route which linked the East and West for centuries.

Immense, remote and utter difference from the rest of China, the far western region has in recent years produced a large number of new artists whose works have rarely been seen beyond the national borders. The exhibition assembles works collected on several trips to China's western regions by a group of Chinese and American curators, thanks to the joint efforts by the China International Exhibition Agency and the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C..

After completing their exhibition in Beijing, the works will be displayed in Washington, D.C. in mid-February of next year, and will subsequently go on tour around the US.

The exhibits help to show how popular culture has been evolving in the region during one of its most important moments in history. This comes as China's remote western regions join the mainstream economic growth and cultural development of the country as a whole.

(CCTV.com November 3, 2003)