ICIF concern: Integrating cultural heritage with modern business

Entrepreneurs and representatives explore the key to protect cultural heritage by creating profitable business.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"What is important is that we can apply intangible cultural heritage into our daily lives. It is not only about designing, it is a cross-field study that puts different cultural elements together. It's a way to solve both economic and social crisis, " Kaltenis said.

Another key point that experts agreed on is to collect those cultural products with day-to-day life.

"I believe that few people knew the iPhone decades ago and now everyone knows it. Why? Because it is part of our lives. So we need to make our culture integrated into our own lives," said Khalifi Hossein, chief representative of the Iran Tourism and Cultural Heritage Association in China. He said the Iran blanket is an example of a good product to materialize intangible culture into daily life.

Ding Liang, executive vice president of the Huaqiang Culture Technology Group and general director of the popular animated "Boonie Bears" series, also participated in the forum. His work was highly commended by the guests and experts in that it effectively passes traditional cultural heritage to the next generation in an entertaining way.

Other scholars and experts present included Dr. Sudha Dhingra, chairwoman of the Department of Textile Design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology of New Delhi; Uma Prajapati, founder of UPASANA Design; Li Fengliang, vice president of Shenzhen University and Wei Lizhong, representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage woodblock printing.