The Development of China’s Modern Silk Industry

Abstract

As the old idiom “men’s farming and women’s weaving” lays out an original picture of a traditional Chinese family organization, the silk weaving industry in China has experienced a long history and formed a well-rounded, stabilized technical system. Since the modern times, with the introduction and application of new looms, raw materials and advanced techniques, Chinese silk industry has gradually completed modernization. This article, based on historical materials and comparative analysis, aims to explore the co-evolution of science, technology and social structure by analyzing the technological and social changes in the modern silk industry. It has been found that essentially stakeholders in either the upstream or downstream value chain of the industry will all influence how such business is shaped, and at the same time, be affected by the result of product and process innovation. This might result in the business prospect where small family based farmers tend to be reluctant to the technological changes in order to protect their own business interests locally.