Xiangxi intangible cultural heritage makes stunning appearance

On the evening of November 18, the first Hunan Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo was opened in Dayong Ancient Town of Zhangjiajie City in Hunan Province, with 13 cities and 1 prefecture gathered at the expo, which is one of the important supporting activities of the first Hunan Tourism Development Conference.

Xiangxi intangible cultural heritage made a stunning appearance at the first Hunan Tourism Development Conference, with 10 intangible cultural heritage items participating in the exhibition as well as 86 performers and exhibitors. The opening ceremony of the expo kicked off with the drum dance, a magnificent national intangible cultural heritage representative item of the Miao ethnic group in Xiangxi. The Youshui boatman’s work songs fully showed the spirit of the sons and daughters of Xiangxi to face difficulties. The opening ceremony climaxed once again with these songs.

In the exhibition area, intangible cultural heritage items from Xiangxi such as Miao embroidery and Tujia brocade demonstrated the exquisite tradition skills and positive attitude towards life of inheritors, which are becoming increasingly popular among young people by integrating traditional culture into modern life through intangible cultural heritage products.

On the scene, Lin Jie, the person in charge of “Valley Dwellers”, was showing the leaders and visitors the perfect combination of the traditional beauty of Miao embroidery in Xiangxi with modern fashion, introducing the way that has brought the valuable intangible cultural heritage resources from ancient times to modern times, so that exquisite Miao embroidery can be brought from the mountains to the world. Li Tieqi, an inheritor of Tahu Paper Cutting, was making exquisite and vivid works by only using a carving knife, a wax board and a pile of colored paper. In front of the Tujia brocade exhibition booth, visitors were scrambling to buy the colorful creative products like brocade scarves and wallets. The beautiful Miao girls and their sweet songs were attracting visitors who couldn’t help taking photos, which became the most eye-catching “Internet-famous site” of the expo.

In the exhibition hall of “Intangible Cultural Heritage Contributes to Rural Revitalization”, there were many unique and creative intangible cultural heritage products such as Miao embroidery of Shibadong Village and notebooks. Located in the middle of the exhibition area, a round fan with “Shibadong” logo was very impressive, and the logo design displayed the desire of the Miao people to work together for a better life. The crochet products on Rabamei crochet weaving exhibition area were diverse, which were favored by visitors. The Tujia and Miao Cultural Ecological Reserve in Wuling Mountain Area (Xiangxi) was approved and established by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China in December 2019, which is one of the first batch of seven national cultural and ecological reserves approved and licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and is also the only national cultural and ecological reserve in Hunan Province.

In recent years, Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture has promoted the innovative development of cultural and ecological protection and the creative transformation of intangible cultural heritage in accordance with the working guidelines of “protection first, rescue first, rational use and inheritance development”. At present, there is one United Nations intangible cultural heritage item in Xiangxi, 28 items on the national intangible cultural heritage protection list, 93 at the provincial level, 278 at the prefecture level and 718 at the county level. There are 33 national-level representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, 93 at the provincial level, 460 at the prefecture level and 936 at the county level, forming a four-level intangible cultural heritage protection system with the national level as the focus, the provincial level as the backbone, the prefecture level as the foundation and the county level as the backing. Efforts have been made to explore a construction and protection model and practical experience with Xiangxi characteristics.