Innovate The Way Of Inheritance, And Show The Old Craftsmanship Again - How Can Intangible Cultural Heritage Enter Modern Life Quietly?

On the 12cm square night light, there are 365 carved characters of "Fu", 7 characters carved on the small peach pit, and 80 year old grandma threading and thread making sachets... At the 8th China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo held in Jinan, Shandong Province, many viewers were amazed by the exquisite traditional skills. At this intangible cultural heritage feast, the audience can not only feel the charm of intangible cultural heritage at a close distance, but also see the wonderful collision between traditional culture and modern life.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of China's ratification of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. With the theme of "protection, inheritance, integrity and innovation", this Expo comprehensively demonstrates the achievements of China's intangible cultural heritage protection in the past 20 years.

As of December 2023, a total of 730 projects in the world have been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, including 43 projects in China, ranking first in the world. In recent years, with the active practice of cultural "innovation and entrepreneurship" in various regions, and the strengthening of the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage has become a key element in building a new benchmark for cultural tourism integration and stimulating new vitality of rural revitalization. Traditional intangible cultural heritage is quietly entering modern life.

On site visitors are popular, and traditional intangible cultural heritage is popular

"There was an ingenious man named Wang Shuyuan, who could use the wood with a diameter of inches to make the palace, utensils, and characters..." In the middle school textbook "The Story of the Nuclear Boat", Wang Shuyuan, a nuclear carving artist, made a "Red Cliff Night Tour" of the nuclear boat with peach stones during the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty, and the characters were lifelike, making people fully aware of the traditional technology of nuclear carving.

At the Expo, Liu Bin, the inheritor of nuclear carving skills, once again demonstrated his exquisite skills. In a narrow space with a length of 3.8cm, a width of 1.6cm and a height of 2.2cm, he carved seven vivid characters, which amazed the audience.

Intangible cultural heritage projects from all over the country were gathered at the Expo site. In the exhibition area of Hakka Culture (West Fujian) Ecological Protection Experimental Area, a small night light attracted many people's attention. According to Ma Li, the inheritor of Sibao's block printing technology, the small night light is 12 cm × 12 cm square, with 365 characters of blessing printed on it, which symbolizes the good meaning of a blessing every day. It is a derivative cultural and creative product of Sibao's block printing, and the block printing of this product alone takes three months to complete.

The theme of this Expo is "protection, inheritance, integrity and innovation", highlighting the concepts of "the treasure of people's intangible cultural heritage" and "integrating into modern life to create a better future". The theme exhibition takes "intangible cultural heritage · very beautiful" as the idea, setting "beauty is more vivid in ecology", "beauty is more innovative in ingenuity", "beauty is good in the countryside", "beauty is exchange and mutual learning" "Beauty lies in creativity and sharing" and other key sectors.

As the host city, the Shandong exhibition area set up for the Expo covers an area of 1845 square meters. The exhibition includes the "Contract of River Harmony", the "Four Seas for Peace" plate and the Jinan area, showing the achievements of Shandong Province in promoting the integration of intangible cultural heritage into modern life. At the scene, Jinan clay figurine rabbit king, dough figurines, Weifang kites, Zibo ceramics and other "signboards" of intangible cultural heritage from all over Shandong gathered and appeared. Featured performances such as Shuihu Boxing, one of the traditional martial arts routines, Beijing Opera "Wusong Beats the Shop", Shandong Express, Taishan Shadow Play, Jiaozhou Yangge and so on also attracted many people to take photos.

In the areas such as the intangible cultural heritage small stage set up in the venue, the audience can also enjoy the performances of traditional music, dance, opera, folk art and other intangible cultural heritage projects. Gao Xue, a student who participated in the research activity of "Little Craftsman" at the scene, said that he saw many intangible cultural heritage that had never been heard of before, deeply felt the breadth and depth of Chinese traditional culture, and also added interest and motivation to his future study of historical and cultural knowledge.

Constantly bring forth the new, and the old craftsmanship is inherited in the development

A piece of bamboo paper is lightly covered on the spectrum plate, a brush dipped with ink is evenly brushed, and a picture of a new type of blessing is suddenly on the paper... In the exhibition hall of "beauty lies in communication and mutual learning" of the Expo, the inheritors use the ancient movable type printing technology to make exquisite works and present them to the citizens.

Wu Songgen, the successor of Ninghua wood movable type printing, said that in the process of inheriting this technology, he also tried to combine this old technology with the needs of modern society. By opening the "Ninghua Wooden Movable Type Workshop" on the Internet, he launched businesses such as sales of printing tools, sales of finished wooden movable type products, personalized customization of wooden movable type and seals, and sales of manual thread bound books, and actively promoted wooden movable type printing, making this intangible cultural heritage project reach thousands of households.

It is a new path chosen by many intangible cultural heritage projects to constantly push through the old and bring forth the new, both retaining the tradition and inheriting in the development. In Hanting District and Xingyong Painting Shop of Weifang City, Yang Naidong, the inheritor of Yangjiabu Woodcut New Year pictures, a national intangible cultural heritage representative project, is busy carving all kinds of miniature New Year pictures every day. Yang Naidong said that recently many young people have come to buy this kind of miniature traditional New Year pictures. The products have many themes, such as Hongfu Mantang, Danfeng Chaoyang, and "fish" every year. After printing, they can be framed in a photo frame as decorations, which is very popular. Compared with the conventional New Year pictures, this new miniature version of the old version is more difficult to engrave and overprint. "While protecting traditional skills, we should adapt to the changes of the times and practical needs, and constantly give new vitality to New Year pictures," Yang Naidong said.

In the process of inheritance, some intangible cultural heritage also glowed with new brilliance, and initially formed a large-scale industry. Walking in the streets and alleys of Daji Town, Caoxian County, Shandong Province, there are Hanfu factories and shops everywhere.

Huang Xiaoyan, the person in charge of Caoxian Chuangtang Hanfu Cloud Warehouse, said that in recent years, local practitioners have combined tradition with fashion, constantly pushed through the old to bring forth new ideas, and innovated communication channels, so that Caoxian Hanfu industry continues to "go out of business". At present, there are more than 2200 upstream and downstream enterprises and more than 13900 online stores in Caoxian, forming a complete industrial chain integrating design and printing, cloud garment research and development, printing and embroidery, accessories and marketing.

Zhang Shishan, president of the Institute of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Shandong University, said that rooted in people's daily life, intangible cultural heritage is an important source of lasting vitality. At present, many intangible cultural heritage in various regions have achieved innovative development and new application fields on the basis of good protection, which has fully stimulated the internal power of intangible cultural heritage to serve economic and social development.

Deep integration with technology, better integration into modern life

At this Expo, the shadow play of Jinan, which was exhibited in the Expo, was loved by more young people through its combination with new technologies. Li Juan, the fifth generation inheritor of Jinan shadow play, said that she cooperated with Shandong Academy of Arts to launch the "AI Digital Shadow Play" series of digital collections. This collection simulates the unique rendering and coloring techniques of Jinan shadow play with AI (artificial intelligence) technology, and completes the color matching of the seven main characters' heads in the play Journey to the West. Jinan shadow play also went to communities, scenic spots and exhibition halls all over the country, and also went to more than 20 countries around the world to tell stories about China's intangible cultural heritage through "shadow play+theater", "shadow play+homestay" and other applications.

With the deep integration of intangible cultural heritage and industry, what kind of flowers will emerge? In Shandong, a bold exploration gradually has the answer. In September this year, a new clothing release activity about Lu brocade and Lu embroidery made many people understand the modern charm of intangible cultural heritage for the first time by means of a runway show.

Lu brocade is a unique brocade in Shandong. Its weaving skill is a national intangible cultural heritage. Lu embroidery is a representative embroidery in Shandong, also a national intangible cultural heritage. Since last year, Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have launched the revitalization of Shandong brocade and Shandong embroidery industry, promoted universities, enterprises and other units to jointly establish a high-quality development alliance for Shandong brocade industry, and relying on the strength of industry associations and universities, established Shandong brocade industry center and R&D design center to improve the level of creative design. At the same time, actively guide high-quality enterprises in the clothing and textile industry to join in the research, development and manufacturing of Lu brocade and Lu embroidery products. "In 2021, there will be less than 10 Lujin production enterprises in the province. Now, the number of enterprises involved in the production and research and development of Lujin has grown to more than 40." Wang Xiao, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shandong Province, said that many enterprises have won huge orders for new Lujin products.

The spread of intangible cultural heritage is also showing an increasingly "tidal" trend. On short video platforms such as dithering, the content of intangible cultural heritage is increasingly rich. According to the data, there are 1428 certified inheritors of intangible cultural heritage on dithering, 199 of whom are under 30 years old. More and more young inheritors are joining dithering to promote intangible cultural heritage.

"While inheriting the old intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship, it has also explored new development paths, some of which are also" circle fans ". This shows that the intangible cultural heritage resources have been gradually integrated into our modern life after flying into the homes of ordinary people and close to the production and life of the public. In the future, more and more traditional cultures will show vitality and vitality." Wang Yuanxing, professor of the School of History and Culture of Shandong University, said. (Reporter Shao Luwen)

(Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph)