On November 11, 2024, after a four-year hiatus from the internet, Li Ziqi –-- an incredible millennial Chinese short-video creator –-- made her comeback with brand-new material.
In one video, she utilized the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) method of Chengdu lacquerware to refurbish a wardrobe for her grandma.
Within simply five hours of its release, the video collected over 100 million views on the Chinese social networks platform Weibo, surpassing 10 million views on worldwide platforms like YouTube within 2 days.
The splendid Chinese lacquer artistry left both domestic and international audiences in wonder.
In another video, worn a handmade, bright yellow Shu brocade baidie (a hundred-pleated) skirt, she once again provided the charm of Chinese ICH to the world in her distinctively aesthetic style.Li Ziqi is not the only young adult devoted to promoting and preserving intangible cultural heritage.
With the increase of short-video formats and social networks platforms, more and more young people are weaving ICH into everyday life in innovative and personal methods.
According to Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), over the previous year, 14 million users have shared their ICH experiences, with those videos amassing an incredible 749.9 billion views.
Amongst them, youth-driven material –-- such as integrating the Bian Lian (face-changing) art of Sichuan Opera with internet memes –-- has surged in popularity.
Plainly, digital platforms and new technology are playing an essential function in narrowing the gap in between younger generations and traditional cultural heritage.Born in 1997, Bai Ziyi is another one of these young inheritors.
The former overseas student returned to her home town of Chongzhou city, Sichuan province in 2020 to start her own organization.
Carrying on the craft of Daoming bamboo weaving from her father, Bai Jingbo, she is dedicated to bringing this conventional art into the modern-day marketplace.
By creating products that interest the aesthetics of more youthful generations, she helps integrate the craft into their lives.
Her bamboo-woven hibiscus brooches, for instance, have actually impressed lots of foreign travelers.
Today, Bai Ziyi is actively organizing a series of ICH exchange occasions, hoping to bring more innovative heritage items into the public spotlight.This trend of heritage renewal has likewise found its method into main school campuses.
At Jiaozi Primary School in Chengdu, trainees, regardless of their young age, have already ended up being little inheritors of various ICH abilities.
They brought their own handmade Shu embroidery and Shu brocade works to the stage at the 9th International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival kept in Chengdu from May 28 to June 1, 2025.
According to Deng Xiaobei, an instructor at Jiaozi Primary School, students can select different ICH projects to study based on their interests, with Shu embroidery being among the most popular.
The trainees begin by raising silkworms, observing them spin silk and form cocoons, thus comprehending the origins of Shu embroidery.
By learning about sericulture, they are introduced to traditional Chinese silk weaving methods, slowly cultivating a passion for the craft.
From learning the strategies to creating their own original works, a student deepens their perceptual understanding of ICH through observation and practice, naturally embedding the awareness of cultural inheritance into their knowing and daily lives.From stimulating interest on school campuses to pioneering development in the market and recording widespread worldwide attention, Li Ziqi, Bai Ziyi, and the students of Jiaozi Primary School strongly illustrate the exact same pattern –-- the restoration of intangible cultural heritage is, at its core, the modern expression and ingenious change of its cultural value.
As 10s of countless youths end up being experiencers, consumers, creators, and promoters of ICH, these ancient abilities are no longer relics in requirement of rescue, but have actually changed into a lively cultural movement.
Driven by the power of youth, this wave is continually injecting new, future-oriented vitality into Chinas abundant standard culture.
(Cover through CFP.)