The 2025 Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Conference held on May 24 at Wunuzhou Resort in Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, is the first "intangible cultural heritage inheritors + multi-platform content creators" cooperation and exchange event in China. With the theme of "Vision of Intangible Cultural Heritage to Create the Future - Create a New Ecology for Intangible Cultural Heritage Communication", it brought together hundreds of national, provincial and municipal intangible cultural heritage inheritors recommended from all over the country, as well as nearly 100 high-quality young creators recommended by various platforms. Director Xu Zheng and Li Ziqi, an excellent creator of traditional cultural short videos, were appointed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion Ambassador" and "General Consultant of Youth Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Nurturing Action" by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association.
The Paper learned that starting from May 24, well-known intangible cultural heritage from all over the country, such as the heroic and unrestrained Ansai waist drum, the vigorous and distant Yi mountain songs, the graceful and lingering Huangmei opera, as well as colorful folk art and puppet shows, have taken turns to appear in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, which is known as the "Tea Town" and "China's Most Beautiful Village". It also unveiled the "2025 Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Conference" co-organized by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, the People's Government of Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu and other new media platforms.
"Video is the most vivid, intuitive and powerful way to spread intangible cultural heritage. It can transcend geographical limitations, break the constraints of time, and show the charm of intangible cultural heritage to the world with vivid pictures and moving stories. Through video, we can make the ancient intangible cultural heritage truly 'come alive'." said Wang Xiaofeng, president of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association.
Intangible cultural heritage performances at the "2025 Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Conference"
How to tell intangible cultural heritage stories well through video
Traditional intangible cultural heritage often faces the "museum-style" dilemma, but some current intangible cultural heritage inheritors have given intangible cultural heritage a fresh vitality through visual narrative and scene reconstruction. In particular, the rise of video media such as short videos, documentaries, and live broadcasts is reshaping the path of intangible cultural heritage inheritance with subversive power. With its dynamic narrative, sensory immersion, and communication fission, video media has become the core carrier for intangible cultural heritage to break through the limitations of time and space and achieve intergenerational dialogue. From Li Ziqi's pastoral aesthetics to the "intangible cultural heritage world" of Douyin and Kuaishou, from the craftsman spirit of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" to the dramatic interpretation of "National Treasure", images are activating the contemporary value of intangible cultural heritage in multiple forms.
Li Xiaosong, deputy director of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that dissemination is one of the important ways to systematically protect intangible cultural heritage. The rise of video platforms and social media has provided new channels and new carriers for the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, and the rich and colorful intangible cultural heritage has also provided rich cultural nourishment for video creators. It is hoped that the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage will tell their own intangible cultural heritage stories in a way that the public likes to hear and see on the basis of effective inheritance, and create more thoughtful, in-depth and warm video works. It is hoped that video creators will deeply explore and explain the cultural connotations of intangible cultural heritage, transform them into meaningful themes, interesting expressions, and high-quality works, so as to spread the intangible cultural heritage more widely, further and more deeply.
The "2025 Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Conference" simultaneously launched the "Youth Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Nurturing Action" jointly initiated by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association and six major platforms including Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Weibo, and Hongguo, and announced the first list of selected candidates. 214 intangible cultural heritage inheritors such as Bai Chunyu and Ba Telumujie, as well as 98 young creators such as Nanxiang and Guo Xiaojing were selected. The Nurturing Action will build a growth channel for young creators through training plans, policy support and mentor appointment mechanisms.
The launch of the "Youth Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Nurturing Action"
"The 'Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation and Nurturing Action' is a rallying cry for social forces to participate in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and it is also a seed planter for building a new ecology for the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage." Wang Xiaofeng, president of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, said that the youth group is the core force for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, and is the most active group on the Internet. The core purpose of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation and Nurturing Action" is to build a broad platform for communication and mutual learning for the majority of young intangible cultural heritage inheritors and video creators, to provide an important window for the display and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage projects, and to solve the problem that intangible cultural heritage inheritors are not good at video creation and dissemination, and video creators lack intangible cultural heritage materials and resource channels.
"We have just released a list that includes more than 200 intangible cultural heritage inheritors and more than 100 video creators. After the list was established, we began to empower them. The platform provided traffic support, policy support and promotion, and the association built online and offline communication platforms for long-term promotion. We will also encourage and motivate outstanding video works, creators and intangible cultural heritage inheritors, exhibit excellent works at future annual meetings, honor outstanding creators, and hire them as intangible cultural heritage promotion ambassadors, etc." said Wang Xiaofeng.
Wang Xiaofeng (left) presents the appointment letter of "Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion Ambassador" of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association to director and first-class actor Xu Zheng (right)
Li Ziqi, the person in charge of the Li Ziqi Intangible Cultural Heritage Workstation and an outstanding creator of Chinese traditional culture short videos, spoke at the event
At the opening ceremony, the organizer awarded the Shangrao Municipal Government and the Wuyuan County Government respectively with special contribution commemorative plaques for the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation and Nurturing Action"; the six major platforms of Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Weibo, and Hongguo were awarded the title of "Partner in Promoting the Creation and Dissemination of Intangible Cultural Heritage Videos"; Jiangxi Xinbang Wunuzhou Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd. was awarded a special contribution commendation by the conference.
Zhou Jianwen, Deputy Director of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Qiu Xiangjun, Deputy Secretary of the Shangrao Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, and Xu Shubin, Secretary of the Wuyuan County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, delivered speeches in succession.
"Five Good" Intangible Cultural Heritage Fair Opens Simultaneously
At the opening ceremony, rare and wonderful intangible cultural heritage programs were performed in turn, vividly demonstrating the contemporary vitality of traditional art. In the "Happiness" jointly presented by Ansai District of Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province and Zichang City, the heroic drum beats of Ansai waist drum and the loud timbre of Zichang suona intertwined.
"Happiness" jointly presented by Ansai District of Yan'an City and Zichang City
Dai Gensheng, inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage of Jialu oil-paper umbrella, and Wunuzhou Art Troupe jointly performed "Umbrella Shadows in Spring Fields", using umbrellas as the medium to present the ingenious beauty of the misty rain in the south of the Yangtze River; the Emei School Women's Kung Fu Troupe innovatively choreographed "Martial Rhythm of Emei", integrating traditional martial arts with modern stage technology, combining hardness and softness; the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion·Dream Seeking" excerpt and the intangible cultural heritage rolling lantern performance "Bright Lights" respectively displayed the agility and poetry of intangible cultural heritage with the graceful water-grinding tune and colorful skills.
Performance of "Dragon Leaps over China"
The finale was the Cangzhou Acrobatic Troupe's thousand-year-old Zhongfan stunt "Dragon Leaps over China". The splendid intangible cultural heritage performances on site not only allowed the audience to appreciate the profoundness and unique charm of intangible cultural heritage, but also injected new vitality into the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.
After the opening ceremony, the "Five Good" (i.e., good-looking, good-tasting, good-sounding, fun, and good-to-use) intangible cultural heritage fair was held simultaneously in Wunuzhou Resort. The fair brought together national and provincial intangible cultural heritage projects such as traditional food, traditional music, traditional drama, traditional crafts, folk customs, and acrobatics from all over the country. The conference also launched the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Check-in Route", which runs through the six active performance areas of "Shehuo Square", "Nuo Dance Square", "Intangible Cultural Heritage Food Light", "Hundred Arts Craftsmanship Square", "Mingcui Yashang Street", and "Fish Pattern Square".
Opening ceremony intangible cultural heritage performance
Opening ceremony intangible cultural heritage performance
Opening ceremony intangible cultural heritage performance
The scene of the fire performance
According to the organizers, Wuyuan, where the conference is held, is located at the junction of Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and is one of the birthplaces of Huizhou culture. As a literary and artistic town with a strong Huizhou style, the Hui-style buildings with white walls, black tiles, and flying eaves and corners are scattered in Wunuzhou, showing the long and splendid Huizhou culture. The folk customs of different regions such as high-platform lion dance, Ansai waist drum, Nuo opera (crossing the sea of fire), Yingge dance, Wang Mantian fish lantern, and pavilion lifting, the vigorous and distant Yi folk songs, the rough and hearty Shaanxi storytelling, the graceful and lingering Huangmei opera, the elegant Suzhou Pingtan, and the popular folk shuttlecock kicking, puppet show, judo and other dazzling and wonderful skills will be staged during the conference, providing creators and tourists with diverse creative content and creating an immersive intangible cultural heritage living scene.
In this cultural feast that integrates vision, hearing, taste and touch, the unique charm of China's excellent traditional culture is infecting every participant in the most vivid way.
Recoding our cultural genes with lenses
On May 25, the conference also held a master class on intangible cultural heritage video creation and experience sharing session and a forum on "Inheritance and Development of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Digital Media Era". Well-known director Xu Zheng and relevant intangible cultural heritage inheritors exchanged views on the inheritance and new media presentation of intangible cultural heritage in the current era.
"When the camera is aimed at intangible cultural heritage, the crossover between film and television and intangible cultural heritage is no longer a simple superposition of elements, but an in-depth experiment on the reorganization of cultural genes. When we use a macro slow lens at 120 frames per second to shoot the Miao intangible cultural heritage, the flying sparks and the focused eyes of the craftsmen constitute a dynamic narrative. At this time, the intangible cultural heritage skills are no longer static specimens, but a visual language that carries the spirit of craftsmanship. Movies are truth at 24 frames per second. The essence of the film and television adaptation of intangible cultural heritage is to recode our cultural genes with the lens." Xu Zheng said.
The 2025 Intangible Cultural Heritage Video Creation Conference will last until May 26. During this period, a series of activities such as intangible cultural heritage video live creation activities will be held, focusing on digital technology and youth power, building an exchange and cooperation platform for intangible cultural heritage inheritors and video creators, and gathering forces from all sectors of society to promote the "breakthrough growth" of excellent traditional culture in innovative dissemination.
Forum on the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage in the digital media era
(The pictures in this article are provided by the organizer)
