Learning the skill from his father at the age of 6, Xu said that now it is more difficult to attract young people to learn this craft. Although there is a small firm producing oilpaper umbrellas in his hometown, the products cannot compete with modern umbrellas in the market, because all the processes are made by hand.

"We are now planning to develop new skills and try to make new umbrellas that fit different climatic conditions," Xu said.

Unlike the oilpaper umbrellas of Sichuan, most traditional crafts are still preserved in a way of family workshops. Wang Aban, 43, who demonstrated the batik skill of the Miao ethnic group at the exhibition, owns a small workshop in her hometown Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

As the successor of the unique fabric dyeing skill of her ethnic group, Wang demonstrated this traditional craft in the United States in 1983 and 1984, winning much acclaim.

Yang Lisha, Wang's sister-in-law, who works for the workshop, said that although most of their products are sold overseas, business is not good. "We hope to pass down the skill that our ancestors left, but it is very hard," Yang said. "We need more interest from the public and more investment."

Like Xu and Wang, Qiao Jinhong is also keen to hand down the bamboo-carving skill he learned from older generations of his family. As the third-generation successor of the bamboo-carving skill, Qiao, 62, chose a different way to develop the art.

Graduating from the Chinese Department of the Nanjing Normal University, Qiao chose to work at an arts and crafts gallery in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province. But he insisted on creating bamboo-carving artworks in his spare time. His only daughter, Qiao Yu, 35, who is now a teacher of English, is the fourth-generation successor of this art. He also hopes to cultivate the interest of his young granddaughter in this art.

Realizing that the art was dying, he organized a salon on bamboo carving in Wuxi, in order to popularize this art. Now, he has over 20 members who come from all walks of life. Cherishing an idea that through sharing the art can be passed down, he teaches students for free.

Government help

Aware of difficulties in protection of these intangible cultural heritages, Zhou Heping, Vice Minister of Culture, said at the opening ceremony of the exhibition that there are various problems facing craft workshops in the fierce market competition today. "The Central Government is considering to carry out some preferential policies in granting loans and lowering taxes for these family firms," Zhou said.

Many Chinese folklorists who attended a seminar that was held on the sidelines of the exhibition echoed this opinion. They said that it is necessary to explore new ways in which traditional crafts can not only be handed down, but also maintain their unique techniques and cultural characteristics.

"The protection of traditional crafts should be connected with rational and scientific economic development to meet the contemporary market demand," said Lu Pintian, a researcher at the China Art Academy, at the seminar.

But how to effectively protect the interests and rights of the representative successors of traditional crafts, such as their intellectual property and ways of keeping the crafts alive, needs to be carefully considered by the government.

"Special laws and regulations need to be worked out to ensure the protection of traditional crafts against the backdrop of merging them with modern production," said Wu Bing'an, a professor with Liaoning University, said at the same seminar.

However, it is a consensus among Chinese experts attending the seminar that besides the market value of these traditional crafts, what is more important is the social and cultural connotations embodied by these skills and the works themselves.