3rd Sanya Nanshan festival provides display platform for cultural heritages

On June 10, the 2023 "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day" Hainan Provincial Publicity Exhibition and the third Sanya Nanshan Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival kicked off in Sanya, Hainan province.

Over eight days, a series of activities will be held, including the achievements of Hainan's ICH protection efforts, the ICH life market, the Nepal handicraft exhibition, the Chongqing Dazu stone carving Exhibition, the Hainan ICH themed cultural creativity exchange seminar, and the ICH cooperation project signing ceremony. 

Hainan currently has 32 national-level ICH projects and 82 provincial-level or above ICH projects. Among them, Sanya has 24 ICH projects at or above the city-level, and has established the Yazhou Folk Song Training Institute, the Dan Song Training Institute, the Li Ethnic Firewood Dance Training Institute, and the Li Ethnic Pottery Making Inheritance Base.

Five of Hainan's cities and counties, including Sanya, Danzhou, Wuzhishan, Tunchang and Lingshui, will showcase their ICH items and protection achievements during the festival.

Different from previous years, this year's event is also holding a special exhibition for Chongqing Dazu stone carvings. Dazu stone carving is the general name of stone carving art that has been handed down since the early Tang Dynasty (618-907). It was included in the fifth batch of national ICH representative projects in June, 2021. The Sanya Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone and the Chongqing Dazu Rock Carvings Cultural Tourism Zone will hold a signing ceremony for a cooperation agreement during the festival.

During this year's event, the "Charming Nepal Handicrafts Exhibition" is also being held. Nepal's ICH items, such as carpets, masks, wood carvings, Thangka, and Kashmir cashmere products are being showcased. The Nepal Ambassador to China, Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, congratulated the opening ceremony through video. He believes that the event will help strengthen cultural and folk exchanges between the two countries.