Fan Yanyan shows some of her designs inspired by the folk art and history of the Silk Road in her studio in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. [Photo by Huo Yan/China Daily]

Her silk painting Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs－a combination of Xi'an's folk art and history－was displayed at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. There, it caught the attention of Thomas Kong, chairman of the US-China Cultural Exchange and Development Association, a nongovernmental organization in Flushing, New York.

Kong flew to Xi'an to meet Fan, bought a dozen scarves she'd designed and took them to the United States.

Kong showed the scarves in an activity sponsored by the US Congress. The chairwoman of a women's association asked Kong to invite Fan to design a scarf for the 16th Global Women In Leadership Economic Forum in Dubai in November 2014, as a potential official gift of the event.

Fan finished the design in one month: Women of four races surround the goddess Artemis, with a bright blue background that Fan favors in her designs.

Fan says the bright blue color is a symbol of the Silk Road: Persian merchants brought to China many valuable ores, such as lapis lazuli, calaite and malachite, which were ground to make pigments to paint the frescoes and sculptures.

Their brilliant hues do not fade and pose a stark contrast with the surrounding earth-tone hue of the Gobi Desert.