A lively spirit of joy fills the air in Liwan District in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. To celebrate the arrival of the 2025 New Year and usher in the Chinese Spring Festival, which will fall on January 29 this year, Liwan has been hosting a series of events under the theme of Lingnan Delight: Joyful Year, showcasing the essence of local Lingnan culture and inviting residents and visitors to partake in festive celebrations. Lingnan culture refers to the culture of the Lingnan region, namely, Guangdong, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hainan Province.

Visitors, clad either in fashionable modern attire or traditional Chinese costumes, can experience intangible cultural heritage, enjoy local music, buy festival goodies and engage in other trend-setting activities that merge tourism with local culture.

"Bringing my daughter here to explore the rich culture and witness the blending of tradition and modernity is important to me. I hope she can learn while having fun," Zhu Mengmeng, a local resident and mother of a 5-year-old, told Beijing Review.

Zhu said the younger generation should learn more about traditional culture because it provides a sense of identity and belonging. "It helps young people understand who they are and where they come from, fostering pride in their heritage and building cultural confidence," she added.

Cultural confidence has become a defining theme in contemporary China in recent years, reflecting a growing sense of pride in the nation's rich historical heritage and cultural achievements. The emerging of this phenomenon is deeply intertwined with China's socio-economic development, national identity and aspirations on the global stage.

Preserving heritage

On December 4, 2024, UNESCO announced its recognition of the Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of traditional new year, as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity during the 19th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asunción, Paraguay. The festival is the oldest and most important traditional one in Chinese culture.

With this latest addition, China now boasts 44 cultural elements or practices on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the highest number of any country or region in the world.

Recognized and catalogued at the international level by UNESCO, but also at the national, regional and local levels within China, intangible cultural heritage is non-physical forms of culture that are passed between generations, such as techniques, customs, traditions, beliefs, practices and knowledge.

The inclusion of the Spring Festival on UNESCO's representative list highlights the importance of preserving intangible cultural heritage. The country has witnessed marked progress in the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage since the Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage went into force in 2011.

Since 2011, the central budget has allocated more than 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) to support the protection and inheritance of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage. The funding also covers the activities carried out by inheritors of intangible cultural heritage at the national level, according to official statistics.

"China has cultural policies worthy of recognition," said Nancy Ovelar de Gorostiaga, Paraguay's permanent representative to UNESCO. "China is always present in cultural movements and is visible, so we value that and believe that it is the example that many countries should follow in order to try to safeguard their heritage, culture and traditions."

Currently, China has nearly 870,000 items of intangible cultural heritage, with over 100,000 representative projects at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels. Among these are 1,557 national-level projects, including 3,610 sub-items. More than 90,000 inheritors of intangible cultural heritage have been recognized at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels, including 3,068 national-level inheritors.

In addition, efforts have been made to bring intangible cultural heritage closer to the people. For example, educational authorities specified that intangible cultural heritage education should be incorporated into the curriculums of primary and secondary schools.

"The preservation and development of intangible cultural heritage requires strong government support, the dedication of inheritors and the involvement of more young people," Xu Jiahui, an inheritor of the technique of making Liangping Woodcut New Year Prints, told Beijing Review. Originating from Liangping District in Chongqing Municipality, the Liangping Woodcut New Year Printing technique is a unique blend of printing and painting with a history spanning over 500 years. "Today, we are seeing more young people express interest in traditional cultural heritage projects and infuse them with innovative ideas, which is a positive development," he added.

Guochao in trend

Guochao, literally meaning "national tide," refers to modern products packed with traditional Chinese cultural elements. In recent years, it has experienced a boom because of a growing interest among younger generations in their cultural heritage and a desire to incorporate it into their daily lives. This resurgence is fueled by social media, where platforms showcase traditional crafts, fashion and art, making them more accessible and appealing.

As consumers seek unique and meaningful products, brands are responding by blending modern design with classic motifs, resulting in a vibrant fusion that resonates with both traditional and contemporary tastes. This cultural renaissance not only strengthens national identity but also helps local artisans and businesses to thrive, reinforcing a sense of pride in Chinese craftsmanship and creativity.

For example, as the Chinese Spring Festival of 2025 invites millions to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Snake, brands are creatively integrating snake motifs into their offerings. These designs appear not only in fashion items but also in home decor and festive decorations, enhancing the celebratory atmosphere of the holiday.

The image of the snake, a symbol of wisdom, intuition and grace, is incorporated into various products such as hongbao, the red envelopes older generations fill with money and give to young people as a symbol of good fortune and prosperity. These hongbao are adorned with intricate designs featuring the snake, making them not just practical gifts but also cherished keepsakes that reflect cultural values and traditions.

"The rise of the 'guochao craze' reflects the appeal of traditional Chinese culture in the consumer sphere. Guochao products combine traditional cultural elements with modern design concepts, satisfying consumers' pursuit of fashion while conveying profound cultural connotations," Zhao Huibing, head of the culture and tourism bureau of Xixian County, Shanxi Province, told newspaper People's Daily.

Shanxi's cultural tourism has rapidly gained popularity due to the global hit online game Black Myth: Wukong, which was released in August 2024. Adapting the ancient Chinese classic Journey to the West, the game reimagines the story of Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, one of the most beloved characters in the Chinese literature world. The game embraces traditional cultural aesthetics in its music, landscapes, architecture, clothes and even folktales, earning huge popularity domestically and worldwide.

As many scenes in the game are created based on cultural and historical sites in Shanxi, the province is witnessing a remarkable surge in tourists, who are either the fans of the game or fans interested in the ancient architecture and sculptures and the stories behind them.

"From a cultural tourism perspective, the guochao craze provides us with vast opportunities for innovation," Zhao said. "We are integrating guochao elements into scenic area development, tourism souvenir creation and performance activities. For example, we have launched a line of refrigerator magnets shaped like the architecture in the game to increase the added cultural value of tourism."

A digital touch

Technology has played a pivotal role in the preservation of traditional culture, offering new tools and methods to safeguard and promote cultural heritage.

For example, the Digital Palace Museum project allows domestic and international audiences to appreciate a wealth of artifacts through digital means. The Palace Museum is a renowned cultural institution located in the heart of Beijing.

Established in 1925, it is housed in the historic imperial palace complex and boasts a vast collection of over 1.8 million art pieces and artifacts, including imperial treasures, ceramics, paintings, calligraphy and historical documents.

The Palace Museum has collected and produced 850,000 pieces/sets of cultural relic images, and more than 1,500 high-precision three-dimensional models of cultural relics. It also launched a mobile mini-program to offer better digital services for online users.

Other museums and cultural institutions in China have also embraced technology. Visitors at the Chengdu Museum in Sichuan Province, who wear augmented reality (AR) glasses and stand in front of an exhibit, will see pop-up images, descriptions and video explanations of the exhibit. By downloading a specific app to their smartphones, visitors can utilize an AR navigation tool that projects virtual routes onto the real-world map of the museum, ensuring a swift and intuitive journey to their destinations.

"The rapid development of digital technology is profoundly changing the development of society and our lives, and it has also opened up an unprecedentedly broad space for the protection of cultural heritage," said Xie Bing, deputy head of China's National Cultural Heritage Administration, at the Seventh International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation by Digitization in Beijing on July 16, 2024.

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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