Cover news reporter Liu Kexin
Before the first quarter of 2022 has passed, intangible cultural heritage has already received three waves of hot attention.
The first is the various tigers associated with the Year of the Tiger: paper-cut tigers, tiger hats, sugar-painted tigers... However, the most concerned is the Shanxi Lihou Tiger, which is what we call the Cloth Tiger. The "tiger wind" of the Spring Festival has not yet passed, and the Beijing Winter Olympics have begun again. The cuteness of the ice pier conquers everyone. However, it is helpless to implement "one household and one pier" for a while, so many intangible cultural heritage "piers" such as "ice piers" for face people, paper-cut "ice piers", wood carving "ice piers" and so on have emerged. Although we cannot embrace these intangible cultural heritage piers because of respect for intellectual copyright, it is also a beautiful thing to see a variety of piers every day and further understand traditional Chinese culture.
Introduction of Dehua white porcelain (source: public account push screenshot)
Coming to March 8 International Women's Day, compared with the previous platforms and merchants pushed perfume, lipstick and other gifts, more intangible cultural heritage gifts are also "not willing to show weakness", which has been favored by many consumers. These include backpacks made of hand-woven Dong cloth, aromatherapy ornaments supported by Dehua white porcelain, ornaments made of Nanjing velvet flowers, silk scarves made of Shu embroidery, jewelry made of silver and silk, and so on. We often refer to "intangible cultural heritage into life" and "use for living", which should be like this.
Gift of Dehua white porcelain (source: public account push screenshot)
In the early years, intangible cultural heritage was still in the embarrassing situation of being "shelved". When it comes to intangible cultural heritage, most people feel that one is expensive and the other is difficult to buy. Therefore, even if intangible cultural heritage works such as porcelain, Shu brocade, and Su embroidery have been given as gifts to leaders of many countries, it is still too far to say that they have entered the lives of the people. In the past two years, with the trend of "cultural and creative fever" and "national hot flashes", under the two-way efforts of consumers to change their subjective concepts and the continuous protection and publicity of non-genetic inheritors and intangible cultural heritage protection organizations, intangible cultural heritage has finally narrowed the distance with consumers, which has led to the emergence of intangible cultural heritage gifts that make people pick up the eye.
In addition to "inheritance", every non-hereditary inheritor talks about the most is "innovation". There are two kinds of innovation, one is the innovation of form, and the other is the innovation of content. The original intangible cultural heritage skills will be changed to make them more close to the lives of the people in form. Wang Xiaolu, the inheritor of the silver filigree skills who is known as the "five golden flowers" of Chengdu Intangible Cultural Heritage, along with Shu embroidery, lacquerware, porcelain bamboo weaving, and Shu brocade, has said that he wants to make silver filigree products that the public can "afford" and "wear".
Silver filigree technique brooch (Source: Courtesy of interviewee)
In 2013, Wang Xiaolu and her mother Dao'an, the first batch of national inheritors of silver filigree skills, opened a silver filigree shop in WenshuFang. In the process of operation, Wang Xiaolu gradually found that the original earrings, necklaces, brooches and other jewelry will be loved by more consumers. Tourists who originally did not understand the art of silver filigree, after listening to the explanation, would also take the silver filigree home as a chengdu feature and give it to their families and friends. This also persuaded her mother, Dao'an, to let Wang Xiaolu make a new attempt. After the online store opened in 2015, Chengdu Silver Silk ushered in more young people's attention.
AI Shu embroidery (source: provided by the interviewee)
Another kind of content innovation, Zhong Ming, the founder of Shujingguan, has given Shu embroidery new vitality with the help of the hottest AI technology at present. First, the customer's specified photos and patterns are drawn into a design draft using AI, and then the machine is used to weave the Shu brocade fabric accordingly, and finally the embroiderer weaves and embroiders on the Shu brocade fabric. In this way, it can meet the customization needs of customers, so that the traditional Shu Jin Shu embroidery, under the diversified needs, has a new presentation. Zhong Ming told reporters that last year's AI Shu embroidery attempts were mostly limited to pandas, this year, Shujingguan will make new attempts on the theme of flowers and Tibetan Qiang Yi characters, and has cooperated with two Shu embroidery national non-hereditary inheritors Hao Shuping and Meng Dezhi, and will make a breakthrough in AI new splendid flowers and characters.
On the one hand, it is the efforts of non-genetic inheritors and protectors, on the other hand, consumers are also actively approaching intangible cultural heritage and inheriting culture. According to the "2021 Intangible Cultural Heritage E-commerce Development Report", in 2021, the scale of consumers of intangible cultural heritage goods has reached the level of 100 million, and the post-85 and post-90s have become the main consumption of intangible cultural heritage goods. The participation of young people in the intangible cultural heritage market has also promoted the innovation of the intangible cultural heritage itself and the intangible cultural heritage industry, thus achieving a virtuous circle.
Consumer feedback (Source: Screenshot of the official account)
Through consumer feedback, it is best to be able to add a cultural consumption while ensuring excellent quality and suitable price. Moreover, with the rejuvenation of consumer groups and the continuous improvement of living standards, people also pay more attention to the consumption of spiritual culture, and no longer blindly pursue super cost performance.
In addition to the popularity of intangible cultural heritage gifts, in recent years, traditional customs have been frequently searched, Hanfu fever, poetry conferences have become popular, etc., which are all proof of the continuous enhancement of cultural self-confidence. In 2022, with the help of the trend of traditional culture to dig deeper and broader aspects, intangible cultural heritage will also be better integrated into our lives and more vividly "come alive".