Feng Jicai (second right) with students majoring in comprehensive ICH research Photo: VCG
China's first annual conference on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) conservation was held in Yulin, Shaanxi Province on Saturday. The focus of the conference was using creativity to further China's ICH development.
China ranks first in the world in ICH resources. There "has never been a greater" opportunity for China to conserve and inherent those treasures, Luo Shugang, the deputy director of the Culture, History and Learning Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the event.
The expert emphasized how creativity should be valued in China's ICH conservation efforts to overcome the "generation" gaps between these ancient treasures and people's everyday lives.
At the event, today's thriving short video and live streaming platforms were highlighted as innovative approaches to promote China's ICH treasures among people.
Experts such as Li Sanqiu, a representative of China's short video platform Douyin, discussed how interactive online digital platforms can engage large numbers of viewers and get them interested in ICH. These new channels have also inspired young people to become ICH inheritors to continue traditional culture while also earning an income.
According to the 2022 ICH data report released by Douyin, a total of 372.6 billion videos related to national ICH projects were streamed on Douyin that year. The amount of tips given to ICH streamers on the platform saw a huge surge compared with the previous year and most of those tippers were in their 20s and 30s.
"Not only digital platforms like these, other technological means like 'online collections' and virtual reality shows have also been trending and spreading China's ICH legacies. Digital creativity made remote ICH more accessible to people," Xue Kai, a Chinese folk art content creator in Nanchang, told the Global Times.
During the conference, Chinese writer Wang Meng mentioned that China's ICH is rooted in and eventually should be returned to people's everyday lives. He noted that the protection of folk culture, art, lifestyles and rituals are critical to ICH protection and inherence.
Han Ziyong, the director of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Space at the China Art and Craft Museum, introduced at the conference that diverse ICH exhibitions have been carried out at the space since it was opened in February 2022.
ICH such as shadow puppetry, music instruments like the guqin and goldstone seal carvings amazed passionate visitors to the museum during the recent Lantern Festival, with the number of daily visitors surging to 9,000 people.
Han noted that the art space has launched an "Inheritance and Transformation Laboratory" to show the wide-spectrum of Chinese ICH in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The conference also discussed issues facing the protection and inheritance of China's ICH during which Luo indicated that rapid industrialization and urbanization could threaten the natural environment surrounding many ICH spots.
Luo also noted the importance of ICH-oriented education programs in the country.
In 2022, Tianjin University recruited its first batch of MA students to major in ICH as an interdisciplinary discipline. Feng Jicai, the course's initiator, told the Global Times that the major, which includes subjects such as oral history inheritance, is "laying the first brick in the high-rise that is Chinese ICH education."
The conference was held as part of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Annual Meeting, which is also being held in Yulin until Monday.
An ICH market and an immersive ICH show have been highlights of the annual meeting.
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