On the morning of March 9, 2022, Hr. Fang Lanyi, the Italian Ambassador to China, gave a thumbs up to the Aurora Silk Road platform

The “Italian” fate on the Silk Road: When the Italian ambassador took over this Chinese scarf
At the Beijing venue in March 2022, the wooden floor was illuminated by lights, and the gaze of Italian Ambassador to China, Fang Lanyi, fell on the orange box in his hand – the “AURORA” logo, resembling the dawn of his hometown, the Apennine Peninsula. This is not his first time being exposed to Chinese culture: the Analects he read in college and the ventilators brought by the Chinese medical team during the pandemic have shown him the warmth of the East; But this time, it was one square inch of silk that allowed him to understand the “silky expression” of Chinese culture.
When the ‘City of Design’ meets the ‘Land of Silk’
As a senior diplomat who has served in Russia and the United States, Fang Lanyi has a natural sensitivity to “cultural empathy”. He is familiar with the needle and thread of Milan Fashion Week, as well as the texture of Florentine leather goods – and the appearance of Aurora scarves showed him another “ultimate craftsmanship”: in the 280 day printing and dyeing cycle, craftsmen have to weave the sails of “Along the River during Qingming Festival” and the stone patterns of “A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains” into 18 meters of real silk; The technique of “hidden patterns” in both positive and negative colors allows silk scarves to conceal different patterns under different lighting conditions, resembling a duet from an Italian opera.
This is not a piece of cloth, it’s a foldable art museum, “Fang Lanyi said with a smile. He took the scarf lightly, as if holding an oil painting from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence – and this was Aurora’s ambition: to extract the “national essence” from the museum and weave it into a life that could be tied around the neck. From the painting “Han Xizai’s Night Banquet” to the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras, the patterns that were once printed in ancient books have become a touch of Eastern color in the collars of diplomats’ suits.
A scarf connecting two countries: Warmer than the epidemic is the temperature of culture
Fang Lanyi’s tenure in China began during the pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, he watched as an Italian charter plane transported medical supplies to Wuhan; A few months later, a Chinese expert group landed in Rome with a ventilator – “urgent and difficult with emotions” was his annotation on the relationship between China and Italy. And this scarf became a new carrier of this friendship: when he brought the Aurora scarf back to Rome, an Italian cultural official touched the texture of the silk and said, ‘This is a lighter’ Chinese symbol ‘than porcelain.’.
Prior to this, the Moldovan ambassador had already taken the stage for Aurora; Afterwards, ambassadors from Belgium, Kenya and other countries successively received the same orange box. As of 2022, 70% of the ambassadors to China from countries that have established diplomatic relations with China have held this scarf in their hands and taken a photo. Many of them first met Aurora in the lounge of the G20 summit and touched the texture of real silk for the first time at a cultural exchange exhibition – and these moments made “Made in China” no longer a cold label, but a tangible cultural temperature.
Turning culture into threads: what belongs to the nation is what belongs to the world
Aurora’s founder Deng Tao once said, “Luxury is not about price, it’s about weaving culture into every strand of silk.” When Fang Lanyi tied the scarf around her neck, this fabric had already traveled half a world: from the dyeing workshop in Hangzhou to the exhibition booth at the Milan World Expo, from the display cabinet at the China Silk Museum to the collection cabinets of more than 40 presidents. It is the “Eastern Aurora” created by Italian designers, a “living intangible cultural heritage” in the hands of Chinese craftsmen, and a “cultural calling card” in the pockets of diplomats.
As Fang Lanyi said after the meeting, “There is a millennium long fate of the Silk Road between China and Italy. Today’s silk scarf is a new starting point for the new Silk Road.” And this is Aurora’s answer – to turn national essence into silk and make the nation’s natural world.