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Fair draws past culture into everyday life
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CHENGDU, a metropolitan in China’s western region, is forging ahead to build itself into a hub of cultural exchange and innovation.
During the Fifth International Festival of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held recently at the International Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo Park in Qingyang District, more than 400 cultural events were held. More than 4,600 people, including 600 from abroad, attended the 10-day event.
A total of 100 cultural projects were promoted to investors and the public at the “Start-up at Tianfu, Innovation in Chengdu” event. Of this group, 14 became the subject of agreements worth more than a combined 30 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion). These deals covered fields ranging from animation and film to cultural tourism and design.
Sealed ahead of the event was a protective tariff service deal. As part of this deal, the Chengdu International Arts and Cultural Center, which entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with the fair’s committee, will provide one-stop protective tariff services for overseas intangible heritage items coming to China for cultural exchange and trade. The center will offer professional logistics services for overseas cultural products, stage properties and exhibition equipment. Other services include access to insurance, expedited customs clearance and bonded warehousing.
This is the first time such protective tariff services have been offered at the fair. Last year, many foreign exhibitors had to wait quite a few days for customs clearance, and the procedures were a bit complicated.
“The intangible cultural heritages fair is Chengdu’s only national-level cultural event. It has attracted a growing number of participants from all over the world for the past several years,” said Wen Xueqian, board chairman of Chengdu Bonded Warehouse for Cultural and Arts Products.
“We’ve been in cooperation with many of the world’s free ports and tax-protected zones. The full operation of Chengdu’s warehouses can definitely make it easier for our cultural and arts projects to go to the international arena, as well as for overseas cultures to come to China,” Wen said.
As western China’s first protective tariff service provider for cultural and arts products, the center boasts quick and convenient logistics and warehousing platforms for domestic and overseas clients.
Integrating traditional culture and arts into people’s daily lives was one focal point of this year’s fair.
Tian Xinyang, an intangible cultural heritage protection institute, brought a set of lacquer ware vessels made by master Yin Liping, who spent one year working on them.
“Today most lacquer ware pieces are for decoration or collection. What we want to do is return to what they were centuries ago: daily utensils,” said Wang Yuefeng from Tian Xinyang, which is the only group in Sichuan Province dedicated solely to protecting and preserving lacquer ware.
As Wang mentioned, lacquer ware vessels and utensils were commonly used as everyday items in the past. But in modern times, the time consuming and complicated craft of making lacquer objects means they are now mostly seen as works of art rather than functional pieces.
He revealed at the fair though that more items with lacquer elements, such as pens, notebooks, postcards, tourism souvenirs and even electronic devices, will be developed in the future.
Tradition served by tech
When the old meets the new, exciting things can happen. The Internet, for instance, has offered many ancient traditions and skills a new lease on life. Pumanai.com, a website showcasing hundreds of top-quality certified traditional craft goods, is a leading pioneer in the industry.
“Information about ancient cultural heritages and their descendents are often scanty in cyber space,” said the website’s spokesperson. “So we feel it our duty to promote these cultures on the Internet.”
On pumanai.com, launched in January, people can find all sorts of old and antique-style goods, ranging from embroidery, lacquer, paintings, sculptures and traditional foods, among many others. The website is also an online intangible cultural heritage portal, collecting the latest news from the industry.
“The website links consumption behaviors with culture protection in an effort to improve public awareness on the protection of intangible cultural heritage,” the spokesman said. “It also promotes the products of those intangible cultural heritage ‘inheritors’ by a professional team.”
In addition, the website plans to collect money via online crowdfunding to invite modern artists to collaborate with handicraftsmen to create “traditiion-meets-innovation” works.
Recently pumanai.com and the China Youth Development Foundation co-launched the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. For each handmade item that is sold on the website, a certain amount of the proceeds will be donated to the fund to support the handicraftsmen.
The website, at the same time, is dedicated to seeking out old Chinese villages steeped in classic architecture and folk arts.
With joint efforts from experts with Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, as well as Southwest University for Nationalities, a complete industrial chain will be built. It will combine design, R&D, production, online sales and offline experience to put more intangible cultural heritage products on the market.
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