The 13th Silk Road International Film Festival was held in Xi'an. Selected as a designated supplier of the Festival, Zhengdaming created custom drift-lacquer workwear and the 'Light on the Silk Road' lacquer art brooch, bringing a thousand-year-old Chinese lacquer craft to a celebration of cinema.
In the autumn of 2026, the 13th Silk Road International Film Festival opened in Xi'an. As a designated supplier of this year's Festival, Zhengdaming Culture Industry Group took part with two bespoke creations — drift-lacquer workwear for Festival staff and the 'Light on the Silk Road' lacquer art brooch — allowing China's millennia-old lacquer craft and contemporary cinema to meet, across time, at the starting point of the Silk Road.
The Silk Road International Film Festival is China's only international film event named after the Silk Road, carrying a mission of mutual learning between civilisations. Zhengdaming traces its origins to a lacquer house founded in 1925. From lacquer groves in the Qinba mountains to the refining of raw lacquer and the making of lacquerware, the group has safeguarded the complete Chinese lacquer industry chain. Through this collaboration, Zhengdaming uses lacquer as its language, connecting Eastern object aesthetics and intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship with an international cultural platform.
Official Recognition: Zhengdaming Named a Designated Supplier
Within the official partnership framework of the 13th Silk Road International Film Festival, Zhengdaming Culture Industry Group was selected as a 'designated supplier', providing drift-lacquer workwear and the 'Light on the Silk Road' lacquer art brooch. This means Zhengdaming's products and services passed the review of the Festival's organising committee, and that Chinese lacquer art entered the supply chain of an international film festival in an official capacity.
Drift-Lacquer Workwear: Every Piece a Moving Eastern Calling Card
During the Festival, the drift-lacquer workwear Zhengdaming made for staff became a distinctive sight. The uniform uses a restrained black as its base, with the Zhengdaming and Festival logos printed at the chest. At the hem, the traditional drift-lacquer technique lets raw lacquer flow, bleed and layer naturally across a liquid surface, forming patterns like a starry river along the Silk Road. Because drift-lacquer is inherently unpredictable, the pattern on every piece is unique — much like an unrepeatable frame of film.
'Light on the Silk Road': A Dialogue Between Civilisations, Worn on the Chest
Alongside the workwear, Zhengdaming created the 'Light on the Silk Road' lacquer art brooch for invited guests. The brooch takes the form of a phoenix turning its head with wings spread, weaving together the flowing imagery of the Silk Road and the light-and-shadow texture of film stock — civilisation looking back, the Silk Road stretching forward, light and shadow in concert. Crafted on a base of natural lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay and silver-pigment lacquer, it passes through dozens of stages: lacquer tapping, refining, coating, inlaying, grinding and polishing. Each piece must rest in a curing room again and again — weeks, sometimes months.
Overseas Promotion Ambassador Wen Junhui, Jury President Bao Dexi and Golden Silk Road Award Best Actor Ivan Savov were among the guests who wore the brooch in the official Festival posters, turning a small piece of jewellery into a refined symbol linking Chinese intangible cultural heritage with world cinema.
From Lacquer Groves to the Spotlight: The Strength of a Complete Industry Chain
Zhengdaming's ability to deliver for an international event of this scale comes from its integrated capacity — from planting lacquer trees and refining raw lacquer to developing lacquerware and cultural-creative products. The group tends more than 5,000 mu of lacquer groves across Ankang in Shaanxi, Enshi in Hubei, Chengkou in Chongqing, Shangluo and Zhuxi. With its own groves, its own workshops and its own artisans, every bespoke piece can be traced to its source, controlled in process and guaranteed in quality.
This collaboration with the Silk Road International Film Festival is more than a moment of brand exposure; it is the practice of Zhengdaming's belief that Chinese lacquer should be seen anew by its time. Going forward, Zhengdaming will continue to safeguard the craft through industrialisation and to tell tradition in the language of the market.