Intangible culture becomes the star
An inspired tourism sector is engaging highly innovative and unusual methods to promote China’s intangible cultural heritage — so successfully that it’s boosting the entire industry, according to industry insiders.
During this year’s Tomb Sweeping Day holiday on April 5-7, the country’s tourist spots attracted a total of 101 million visits, generating revenue of 42.1 billion yuan ($6.7 billion).
Tomb Sweeping Day lies within the 24 solar terms of the traditional Chinese solar calendar — used by people to mark the days and hours and keep track of their agricultural year — which were included into the list of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2016.
“A distinctive culture has become a source of tourism,” said Xiang Yong, vice-president of a cultural industry institute at Peking University.
“Most regions with rich resources in and a strong ambience of intangible cultural heritage have grown to be popular tourist destinations,” Xiang told Guangming Daily.
China has a variety of ethnic groups and boasts rich distinguished cultures and local customs spanning its different regions. There are more than 870,000 intangible cultural heritage assets across the country, the Beijing-based Guangming Daily quoted experts as saying.
Danzhai Wanda Village is a new tourism project that successfully celebrates some of them, and has become a huge draw for visitors. The new tourism area was funded and constructed by Wanda Group and sited in Guizhou province in Southwest China.
Danzhai is considered one of the poorest counties in China and the tourism project was part of a charitable initiative by Wanda to alleviate its poverty and revitalize its economy.
Seven national-level and 16 provincial-level intangible cultural heritage displays and activities were introduced into it for tourists to experience and enjoy, focusing on the Miao and Dong ethnic cultures. Among these are batik fabric and cloth techniques and bark paper making.
Celebrating the ethnic cultures, the village was especially designed to integrate them with leisure, tourism and business, immersing visitors in traditional craftsman activities.
In Huzhu county, in northwestern Qinghai province, women from the Tu ethnic group employ cloth in a spectrum of colors to make their garments. This has earned them the reputation of being people dressed in “rainbow costumes”. Their homeland is also dubbed as the home of the rainbow.
Because of the complexity of their embroidery skills — a national intangible cultural heritage item — it takes them much longer time to complete a garment than other methods. As a result, few young people are willing to learn them, although the finished costumes are both durable and feature exquisitely complicated patterns.
Xi Yuxiu, a local embroidery worker, introduced the traditional embroidery elements into her designs of name card holders, handbags, lampshades and smartphone covers.
She encouraged other embroidery workers living nearby to produce the innovative tourism products, which became a hit and helped local residents boost their incomes.
Thus the flourishing business has attracted more young people to join them and learn the traditional embroidery.
Intangible cultural heritage can remain its vitality, only if it finds a way to integrate itself with the present day and showcase its influence and charm, experts said.
However, they warned against the over-design of the heritage and said the essence of the tradition must be kept.
Wu Yuanxin is an exponent of the white-and-blue textile dyeing skills originating in Nantong, Jiangsu province.
Wu said that while the heritage’s traditional techniques and historical role need to be respected, how to innovate designs to attract more attention for their survival should also be given consideration.
“Without the market or demand, it would be a vacuum for developing our intangible cultural heritage,” he said.