Students from the UK watch intangible cultural heritage performance. (Photo by Kong Sheng)
A group of students from Dudley College in the United Kingdom learned the intangible cultural heritages of Yangzhou under the guidance of the inheritors Thursday afternoon at Yangzhou Culture Palace.
China is an ancient civilization with a long history and splendid cultures. With a history of 2,500 years, Yangzhou is one of the first 24 famous Chinese historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council. The thousands of years of history gives Yangzhou splendid cultures, numerous historical sites, and countless intangible cultural heritage. Yangzhou has three items that are listed in the "Representative of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind" by UNESCO; 19 items that are listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list, 46 items that are listed in the intangible cultural heritage list of Jiangsu Province; and more than 200 items that are listed in the intangible cultural heritage list of Yangzhou City. There are 17 state-level inheritors, 82 provincial-level inheritors and 278 municipal-level inheritors. After a short stay in Beijing, the students of Dudley College came to Yangzhou to learn Yangzhou's intangible cultural heritages.
Yangzhou's intangible cultural heritage inheritors took their own works to the students. Among them are Yangzhou paper-cut master Weng Wen, Tong Cao Hua (A kind of dried scented flower) master Dai Chunfu, Yang school embroidery master Wei Fang, engraving & calligraphy master Lv Zhengcheng and Chinese painting master Zhang Jian.
The masters did not only explain Yangzhou's intangible cultural heritages to the foreign students, but also displayed their own works, and showed the process of making them. The Dudley College teachers and students from the United Kingdom were very happy, and praised Yangzhou's extensive and profound traditional cultures.
