The active carrier of national cultural genes is the intangible cultural heritage. Its cross-border spread and its reconstruction of contemporary values have become an important yardstick for measuring cultural soft power.
In the context of globalization, the overseas dissemination of Chinese intangible cultural heritage is not a simple display of skills, but an in-depth dialogue with cultural consciousness as the core. It is a grand practice for the Chinese nation to achieve cultural identity and reconstruct values through mutual learning among civilizations.
By systematically sorting out and creatively transforming representative national-level intangible cultural heritage items such as martial arts, mortise and tenon, and dragon dance, China is relying on unprecedented cultural confidence to tell the world intangible cultural heritage stories containing Eastern wisdom, continuing to enhance the cohesion of the Chinese nation and the global influence of Chinese culture.
1. Digital translation of the essence of craftsmanship and media innovation in civilized dialogue
In the international communication pattern of intangible cultural heritage, the addition of digital technology is not only an expansion of communication channels, but also a revolution in expression methods with profound significance.
Take the handmade porcelain craftsmanship in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, for example. Pottery master Wang Wenhua has become popular overseas. Behind this is the cross-cultural aesthetic commensurability of the superb craftsmanship itself.
Core processes such as drawing, cutting, and glazing are presented to the extreme with microscopic lenses through video media, transforming the philosophy of "earth and fire" in traditional handicrafts into an artistic shock that global audiences can intuitively perceive.
Such a visual narrative form that transcends language barriers allows the spread of intangible cultural heritage overseas to break through the limitations of textual interpretation and achieve the transmission effect of the authentic nature of the essence of craftsmanship.
At a deeper level, the widespread popularization of cutting-edge technologies such as 5G technology, VR technology, and AR technology is changing the sense of presence of intangible cultural heritage and reshaping the experience dimension of intangible cultural heritage.
Zhao Weibin, a representative inheritor at the provincial level, inherits the Guangdong lion dance (lion dance). He has launched cross-border cooperation with technology companies, which has become a typical case of digital empowerment of traditional performing arts.
Through the development of VR lion awakening mini-programs, AR lion awakening mini-programs, and somatosensory interactive robots, lion dance performances that were originally limited to specific folk custom spaces such as temple fairs and festivals can be infinitely reproduced in the virtual space and can be interacted with in the virtual space.
With the empowerment of technology, overseas audiences have transformed from passive viewers to active participants. In the immersive experience, they can understand the cultural connotation of exorcism and blessing behind the stylized action of "picking green" of lion dance, and the cultural connotation of unity and bravery behind the stylized action of "drinking water from high platform" of lion dance.
Digital media not only expands the scope of communication of intangible cultural heritage, but also opens up new ways for in-depth understanding between different civilizations at the level where virtuality and reality are intertwined.
2. Design innovation and living inheritance: contemporary aesthetic reconstruction of intangible cultural heritage
The creative transformation of intangible cultural heritage focuses on the contemporary reconstruction of its artistic aesthetic value and social and cultural significance.
Liu Weixue, the inheritor of Yuhang paper umbrella making skills, collaborated with international designer Chris Fox, which profoundly explains that proposition.
The traditional paper umbrella making technique includes seventy-two and a half steps, including bamboo selection, planing, gluing, and painting, which contains a wealth of craftsmanship wisdom.
Chris did not simply copy traditional patterns, but deeply understood the structural logic of paper umbrellas and their material properties. He refined the light and transparent structural aesthetics of paper umbrellas into modern design language and created art installations that were unveiled at Milan Design Week, as well as daily derivatives.
This practice shows that the internationalization of intangible cultural heritage does not simply adhere to historical features, but extracts its core skills and aesthetic genes and integrates them into the aesthetics of modern life, thereby gaining lasting vitality.
This kind of design innovation is also reflected in the international exhibition of folk culture space.
First, the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Doll·Silk Dance Flying" made a stunning debut in Amiens, France, and then intangible cultural heritage projects such as Xiangyunsha, Suzhou Embroidery, and Kunqu Opera were displayed at Milan Design Week, and then displayed at the China Cultural Center in Singapore. These all show that China's intangible cultural heritage is moving from a museum-style static display state to a dynamic development model that is deeply integrated with contemporary design and fashion industries.
Traditional craftsmanship has creation ideas such as "borrowing objects to convey emotions" and "unity of nature and man". These ideas have been given new aesthetic interpretations through dialogue with the world's design frontiers, and have become an aesthetic bridge that promotes mutual appreciation and mutual understanding among people with different cultural backgrounds.
3. Linkage between World Heritage Applications and Transnational Practice: Building an Academic System for Mutual Learning among Civilizations
In terms of more profound mutual learning among civilizations, intangible cultural heritage has become an emotional bond connecting different countries and nations, and it has also become an academic research community.
The project jointly submitted by China and Malaysia is called "Send the King's Ship - Ceremonies and Related Practices about the Sustainable Connection between People and the Ocean", and the "Mongolian Long Tune Folk Song" jointly submitted by China and Mongolia. They are not only models of international cooperation in protecting intangible cultural heritage, but also historic practices in building regional cultural identity.
Take "Send the King's Ship" as an example. This is a folk activity that has existed in southern Fujian and the coastal areas of Malacca for hundreds of years. It carries the awe of the ocean and the common value of care for life among people involved in the sea.
During the application process, Chinese and foreign scholars conducted joint research around its historical origins, ritual systems, and social functions. These research results were gathered into a thick collection of academic papers, which turned this "common intangible cultural heritage" into an academic link across regions and cultures, effectively confirming the blending and symbiosis of civilizations on the Maritime Silk Road.
In addition, individual cross-cultural inheritance practices also write vivid chapters of people-to-people bonds.
There are cases where young people from Lebanon started to study Peking Opera, there were cases where French girls became tea culture volunteers, and there were cases where Colombian photographers spread Cantonese opera culture. Each of these cases together paint a picture of cultural exchanges using intangible cultural heritage as a medium.
There was a foreign inheritor who knocked on the door of the Liuqing Bamboo Carving Museum in Changzhou, and then began to study the unique carving technique of "using a knife to write and the bamboo to take a photo". What he pursued was not only the skill itself, but also the use of bamboo carving as a medium to understand the cultural heritage and philosophical implications of the great Eastern country.
These transnational practices have fully proved that intangible cultural heritage, as a cultural treasure shared by mankind, its historical documentary value and social and cultural significance have transcended national boundaries and plays an irreplaceable role in promoting exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations and shaping a more attractive and approachable image of China.
China's systematic protection of intangible cultural heritage and its innovative promotion have not only enhanced national pride, but also demonstrated the value orientation of promoting the coexistence of civilizations and pursuing harmony and symbiosis in the process of protecting cultural diversity for all mankind.
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