The 2024 "Xinjiang is a Wonderful Land" intangible cultural heritage exhibition opened in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday, showcasing fruitful cooperation in intangible cultural heritage protection and exchange.
The exhibition in Korla, the capital of Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, brought together over 300 intangible cultural heritage projects and more than 400 representative inheritors from Xinjiang and other 21 provinces and cities. The exhibition features various sections, including an intangible cultural heritage market, hands-on activities for visitors, and music and dance performances.
"What caught my eye at the exhibition hall this time was a reed painting from Panjin, Liaoning Province. During my talk with the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Panjin, he mentioned that he had also heard about the reeds at Bosten Lake in our Bayingolin. He expressed a strong desire for an exchange among heritage inheritors or creators in Bayingolin, hoping to explore the possibility of blending and innovating creations from both regions," said Yang Liuqing, a visitor. Many inheritors at the exhibition are from the younger generation, who have emerged as the main driving force behind intangible cultural heritage preservation. "The middle-aged and young inheritors participating in our intangible cultural heritage exhibition have become a major group, infusing our ongoing efforts in intangible cultural heritage preservation and continuation with increased vitality and creativity. I consider them a standout highlight of our exhibition this time," said Lei Qiang, deputy director of Xinjiang Safeguarding and Research Center of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The exhibition, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Xinjiang regional government, has been held for four consecutive sessions since 2021. This year's exhibition has made new breakthroughs in scale and the number of inheritors and intangible cultural heritage projects. The exhibition will run until August 26.
Intangible cultural heritage exhibition opens in Xinjiang
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
