"Things to Convey Dao-Digital Exhibition of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China" launched in China and Morocco

In order to showcase China’s extensive and profound intangible cultural heritage and arts, enhance Moroccan people’s understanding of Chinese culture, and promote cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, on November 2, “Things to Convey Dao-Digital Exhibition of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China" was launched on both Chinese and Moroccan digital media platforms. The online exhibition will last until February 28, 2021, and the offline event is held at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Rabat, Morocco from November 2 to December 2.

"Containing Dao in artifacts" is the advanced state of Chinese classical aesthetics, within which the "spirit of artifacts” is essentially a humanistic spirit. Through the use of these artifacts in daily life, the oriental aesthetic life has evolved, which demonstrates the Chinese philosophy of life-the unity of "knowledge" and "practice". The exhibition focuses on China's outstanding intangible cultural heritage resources and presents the elegance of Chinese culture and craftsmanship inheritance from the perspective of artifacts. The exhibition breaks the traditional static exhibition pattern. On the basis of live exhibition, it adopts "technology + intangible cultural heritage" means and uses AR technology in photographing and production, so as to create a 3D digital hall with glasses-free VR effect, display the unique charm of China's traditional culture and empower new vitality to ancient intangible cultural heritage.

The exhibition is divided into three sections: "The Pearl on the Silk Road-Envoys of Oriental Culture on the Belt and Road”, "Traveling with Things-Elegance of Chinese Ancient Life", "Inheritance of Ingenuity-Innovation and Empowering Traditional Techniques".

"The Pearl on the Silk Road-Envoys of Oriental Culture on the Belt and Road" presents tea art, porcelain, and silk products together as the "cultural envoys", to emphasise the important role they have played in trade routes since the ancient Silk Road as well as the cultural exchange in today’s “Belt and Road”. Tea, silk, and porcelain are the distinctive products in daily life of ancient China, and symbolise the prosperity of the ancient Silk Road trade. Today, as it ever was, they are the symbolic expressions of foreign people's perception of Chinese lifestyle. In recent years, due to the increase of China's strength and its further opening up, especially the ignition of the Belt and Road Initiative, more and more foreign people have shifted their focuses to traditional Chinese culture and lifestyle through tea, silk and porcelain.

"Traveling with Things-Elegance of Chinese Ancient Life" reproduces the life of classical Chinese literati in a scene-like presentation. Literati in ancient China paid great attention to self-cultivation. Those in Song Dynasty referred to burning incense, whisking tea, hanging paintings, and floral design as the "Four Arts." In Ming Dynasty, those were evolved into playing the zither, appreciating incense, drinking tea and reading paintings as the “Four Charms”, elevated social life to art category. In this section, you can appreciate the furnishings of classical study rooms through Chinese traditional furniture, artworks, and decorations, learn about the elegance and charm of their daily life by smelling incense, playing the zither, reading paintings, etc., and experience the ancient Chinese scholars’ artistic lifestyle which was for the purpose of self-cultivation.

"Inheritance of Ingenuity-Innovation and Empowering Traditional Techniques" mainly showcases the inheritance and diversified development of China's intangible cultural heritage in contemporary society. It originates from and serves Chinese people’s production and life in ancient times, embodies the wisdom of the Chinese people, carries the value of Chinese civilization, and strengthens the spirit of the Chinese nation. As for the inheritance of intangible heritage, it is necessary to adhere to traditional techniques and meanwhile to empower them with cultural creativity. It’s also important to develop new products that meet the aesthetic and social demands of modern people, and to conserve, inherit, innovate with the integration of social life. That helps intangible cultural heritage continue to thrive with vitality in the new era.

This section includes the Foshan Intangible Heritage Exhibits, the Dyed Intangible Heritage Aesthetics Gallery, and the Tibetan and Qiang embroidery that goes international. Take the Foshan Intangible Heritage Exhibits as an example. With its rich intangible heritage resources, Foshan focuses not only on conservation and inheritance, but also on innovating and designing new intangible cultural heritage links, giving traditional artworks new vitality.

The event was sponsored by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, hosted by Zhongchuan Exhibition Co., Ltd., a branch company of the China Cultural Media Group Co., Ltd., with the support of the Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau of Foshan Municipality and the Chinese Cultural Centre in Rabat, Morocco.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/culture/2020-11/02/c_1126687390.htm