Filigree inlay is a Chinese traditional intricate metalwork, recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Once regarded as a specialty of Beijing, it is now making waves worldwide as Chinese artists wow international fashion events such as the London Design Festival and Milan Fashion Week with exquisite filigree inlaid jewelry.

The vitality of this time-honored Chinese handicraft can be traced back to the Beijing Filigree Inlay Factory, one of China’s earliest gold and silver processing enterprises, established in 1958. In 1999, the factory was taken over by the local administration to keep it going and renamed the Beijing Oriental Yizhen Filigree Inlay Factory. In 2022, Zhao Yunliang, a filigree inlay maestro recognized as an inheritor of the craft, won the first prize at the Beijing Traditional Craft Art Competition.

For ICH that is on the verge of disappearing or faces difficulties in being passed on, local administrations are taking measures to encourage apprenticeships and protection efforts from all sectors. A Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism official said the conditions of arts and crafts regarded as ICH and the challenges they face will be investigated with multimodal methods, including written and audio-video recordings, to document, preserve, and organize them.

The Chinese Traditional Culture Museum in Beijing showcases a collection of Yu County papercuts in its newly-opened thematic exhibition "Splendid Diversity: Practices in Chinese ICH Protection."

ICH Sets New Trend

This year marks two decades of China’s ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. China has also founded a Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, celebrated on June 8 every year. The variety of engaging ICH-based activities with local characteristics organized across the country on this day creates new ways to spread traditional intangible cultural heritage.

The "ICH + tourism" concept represents a new trend in the rise of guochao. Literally meaning national trend, guochao indicates consumers’ rising preference for Chinese brands, art and culture.

“An efficient way to preserve ICH is through the integration of culture and tourism, bringing win-win outcomes for both sectors,” said Yang Ping, dean of the School of Chinese Culture and Communication at Beijing International Studies University (BISU), who has been conducting research in ICH and cultural communication. "For that, it is also important to utilize natural and cultural heritage through rural revitalization and urban planning projects. National cultural parks should be established to utilize and protect Chinese cultural heritage.”

Statistics show that China boasts the highest number of ICH items in the world. By the end of December 2023, over 100,000 projects were listed in the national, provincial, municipal, and county-level ICH inventories and more than 90,000 people were listed as representative inheritors. China's intangible cultural legacy has added new dimensions to the global cultural diversity and is also raising more requirements for the protection and utilization of these invaluable resources.

Yang said China has a wealth of experience in protecting its cultural legacy. It has made and implemented a series of laws and regulations on cultural heritage protection and is driving for the inclusion of more of its heritage sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list. For now, the list includes 57 Chinese World Heritage sites. Besides, China participates in the global cooperation for the protection of cultural and biological diversity. Its five national cultural parks are a cultural heritage protection model with Chinese characteristics and a holistic approach to preserving natural and cultural heritage. Beijing, for instance, has introduced a range of regulations and policies covering all aspects of ICH, including projects, inheritors, protection entities, and promotion and exhibition.

Campus Contributions

Universities play a significant role in ICH inheritance. Wang Mingyang, a BISU student, has been interested in cloisonné since she was in middle school. "The process of making cloisonné fascinates me," she said. "When I joined university, I decided I would research it in depth.” Last summer, she and her classmates visited the Cloisonné Museum in Dongcheng District, Beijing, to learn about the history, processes, and current situation of the craft. They also went through records, policy documents and other materials to understand the craft better and promote it.

Gao Yuan, a BISU School of Chinese Culture and Communication student, led a student team studying innovation and entrepreneurship to the Gubei Water Town, an ICH-themed resort 140 km from Beijing, to visit several ICH workshops there. They gained hands-on experience in making shadow puppets and learning how to play them. They also learned about the artwork of the Lord Rabbit figurines, which, in Beijing’s local culture, are a symbol of happiness and good luck, and originated in an ancient Chinese tradition of worshiping the Jade Rabbit on Mid-Autumn Festival.

To research and disseminate Chinese cultural heritage, BISU has conducted a series of themed field trips, including exploring the Beijing Central Axis and a mobile phone photography exhibition featuring the Grand Canal. Yang said, “In the future, universities can participate in designing ICH creative products, which will preserve and utilize ICH. ICH bases in colleges can be good platforms for teachers and students to research ICH and spread its stories.”

New technologies are widely used for ICH communication, such as live streaming and virtual exploration of ICH.

Beijing held an exhibition of ICH recently, showcasing many tech-assisted ICH products. At the exhibition, Tangrenfang, a company producing Beijing silk figurines, a type of traditional dolls popular in Beijing for centuries, presented its traditional silk dolls made using artificial intelligence. Computer vision algorithms extract facial features from 2D photos and create 3D head models. Beijing silk figurines are on the national ICH representative item list and the integration of this craft with advanced technologies adds to their charm.

Dongyang, a city rich in ICH such as wood carving and bamboo weaving, in Zhejiang Province in east China, has developed an ICH-based cultural tourism project. Eighteen ICH workshops were established across the town, highlighting local arts and crafts. They received over 2.8 million visitors in 2022. The initiative has enhanced the reputation of local ICH and transformed local ICH workshops into a developed industry, contributing to rural revitalization.

Exploring the Metaverse

Cities like Beijing and Wuhan as well as Guizhou Province have been exploring the metaverse and other cross-media interactive technologies to better promote ICH. These interactive technologies have helped spread ICH culture both at home and abroad. For example, the video game Shadow Fencer Theater combines the manipulation skills of shadow play with game mechanics, making it especially appealing to Gen-Z.

Currently, Yang Ping is leading a research project that will elucidate the values and civilizational significance of Chinese cultural heritage and promote its global influence. It will promote Beijing's Central Axis cultural heritage abroad, raising public awareness of the value of China’s world cultural heritage sites, and facilitating cross-cultural communication of cultural heritage around the world.  

XUE XIANG is a lecturer at the School of Chinese Culture and Communication, Beijing International Studies University, and WANG HAOKUN is a research assistant at the same institution.