Exhibitions celebrate culture and heritage day

A series of themed exhibitions will be staged to help members of the public celebrate this year's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day on June 8.

The exhibitions will raise public awareness of intangible cultural heritage protection, promote and further the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and create a favorable social atmosphere for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, said Hu Yan, an official from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's intangible cultural heritage department.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of China ratifying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

More than 12,600 intangible cultural heritage promotion and exhibition events will be staged across the country around Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, including more than 9,600 in-person activities, Hu said.

As one of three major celebrations of the day, a three-part exhibition featuring the protection of intangible cultural heritage will be staged at the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum in Beijing.

"The first section mainly showcases the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage projects that President Xi Jinping inspected from November 2013 to March 2024, highlighting the achievements and influence of China's practices in protecting intangible cultural heritage," said Wang Chenyang, Party secretary of the museum.

Interactive zones and multiple media presentations will also be available during the exhibition and 100 national intangible cultural heritage inheritors will give performances to engage visitors, Wang said.

Traditional folk opera, embroidery, wood carving and tea-making techniques will be on display, Wang said.

At the same time, cloud exhibitions hosted by the China Association of Performing Arts and online platforms such as Tencent, Bilibili, Douyin and Kuaishou will be put on, aiming to draw more public attention to the rich and diverse intangible cultural heritage in daily life and the vibrant practices of its preservation.

They will cover documentaries, films and entertainment shows on intangible cultural heritage items and inheritors, said Pan Yan, secretary-general of the China Association of Performing Arts.

Related question and answer sessions and concerts will also be staged.

The cloud shows are intended to build a diverse, rich, vibrant and people-oriented ecosystem for the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, Pan said.

"We have chosen high-quality audio and video content as the foundation for the exhibition, combined with interactive features and topic collections to encourage public participation," Pan said, adding that this approach ensures that elements of intangible cultural heritage are prominently displayed and that valuable content can be seen, encouraging everyone to discover the intangible cultural heritage around them.

Related cloud exhibitions have drawn 720 million views over the past four years, Pan said.

A photography exhibition — Beautiful Life in Intangible Cultural Heritage — will highlight the positive role of intangible cultural heritage in serving overall economic and social development, and meeting the people's growing needs for a better life.

The photography exhibition received more than 7,600 works from April 24 to May 17, and a vote to rank those works will be staged next month.

The exhibition will strive to show the necessity and importance of integrating intangible cultural heritage with modern life, according to its organizer, China Tourism News.