Strides made in protecting Chinese culture

All-around efforts bear fruit by reviving popularity of traditional crafts, practices

Sometimes, Liang Desong finds it hard to come to terms with the years he spent away from his art — doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

Liang is a practitioner of Miao painting in Central China's Hunan province. The art form uses fine-tipped brushes and vibrant paints to create detailed artworks on fabric, mimicking the intricate stitches of Miao embroidery.

Liang, now in his 60s, was forced to lay down his brush in the 1980s, as machine-made clothing swept markets and pushed traditional crafts to the margins.

However, thanks to the country's efforts to protect and revive the art form, named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011, Liang got the chance to return to the roots of his identity.

Today, cultural tourism, spurred by heritage-focused development policies, has turned his workshop in Jishou, in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, into a vibrant tourism destination.

"I feel Miao paintings have made a comeback," said Liang, named a national inheritor in 2018, a status that has helped to boost the spread of his craft.

His journey is an example of the tangible results of the country's nationwide push to safeguard its diverse cultural heritage.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, President Xi Jinping has placed great importance on protection and transmission of intangible cultural heritage.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has underlined the importance of intangible cultural heritage on multiple occasions.

During his visit to a Dong ethnic village in Guizhou province in March, Xi praised the distinctive culture of the ethnic group, including stilt houses, the grand song of the Dong people and batik craftsmanship, as "deeply traditional and remarkably stylish".

When he visited Huawu during an inspection tour of Guizhou in 2021, Xi gave the thumbs-up to using Miao embroidery to pass down ethnic traditional culture, aid in the battle against poverty, and promote rural vitalization.

In 2019, Xi emphasized the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of ethnic groups during an inspection tour of Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Annual celebration

Building on his initiatives, the 2025 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day will be celebrated on Saturday. Established in 2006, the annual event highlights the country's efforts to preserve and rejuvenate China's cultural relics.

Since 2011, more than 10 billion yuan ($1.39 billion) has been allocated to support the protection and inheritance of representative national intangible cultural heritage items and the activities carried out by related national-level inheritors, according to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

When visiting North China's Shanxi province in 2022, Xi said that more efforts must be made to conserve China's cultural heritage and promote its role in contributing to economic and social development and people's quality life.

Government organs have been promoting the development of intangible cultural heritage workshops.

They have encouraged participation from various sectors in establishing such workshops and outlined measures such as boosting employment, enhancing training, cultivating local promoters, improving competitiveness, expanding sales channels and strengthening publicity and promotion.

As of June 2024, a total of 9,100 such workshops had been established. Most are built around leading local enterprises or cooperatives engaged in intangible cultural heritage practices. They have become vital platforms for the preservation of traditional culture and serve as powerful engines driving rural vitalization.

Chen Yunzhen, an ethnic Qiang embroidery artist from Beichuan Qiang autonomous county in Sichuan, has promoted the art through such a workshop in her hometown.

She has led her team to develop a wide range of products, while providing training and employment to more than 500 women.

According to a 2024 report from the top legislature focused on reviewing the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, a large number of intangible cultural heritage items have been effectively protected since the law took effect in 2011.

The year 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of China joining the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. To date, the country boasts more than 100,000 intangible cultural heritage items, including over 1,550 designated as national-level items.

After the inscription of traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2022, Xi said the inscription is significant to the promotion of China's tea culture.

Xi also emphasized the need to promote the creative transformation and development of the best of traditional Chinese culture, enhance the cohesion of the Chinese nation and the appeal of Chinese culture, deepen exchanges and mutual learning with other civilizations, better tell the stories of China's fine traditional culture, and better present Chinese culture to the world.

As of the end of last year, 44 Chinese items have been inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, with the latest addition in December of Spring Festival, which encompasses the social practices of the Chinese people in celebrating the new year.

The government's support for intangible cultural heritage has also encouraged industrial players' participation in the field.

The Beijing Gongmei Group, a leading enterprise in China's arts and crafts industry, launched the Yuxun program in 2023 to explore modern-day uses of traditional arts and crafts.

yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn