Xi's footprints in promoting intangible cultural heritage

Promoting the creative evolution and development of fine traditional Chinese culture is a major issue, and one that President Xi Jinping has been paying great attention to.

In his inspection tours to different places across China over the years, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, praised efforts to preserve and carry forward intangible cultural heritage in the country.

The following are some of the highlights of several such visits made by Xi over the past three years:

ZHEJIANG, March 2020

During an inspection tour in Zhejiang Province, east China, Xi visited the Xixi National Wetland Park in the provincial capital of Hangzhou.

Stopping by vendor booths that make Hangzhou's well-known Longjing tea and sell local, signature products, Xi encouraged the vendors to inherit and develop traditional handicrafts and other forms of intangible cultural heritage.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, communicates with folk opera performers at a cultural center in Dongyue Village of Wenshu Township in Guangshan County, central China's Henan Province, Sept. 17, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

HENAN, September 2019

Xi visited Dongyue Village of Wenshu Township in Guangshan County during an inspection tour of central China's Henan Province.

Two performers of the Guangshan Huagu Opera, a local folk art on the national intangible cultural heritage list, presented a show for Xi on the spot and won warm applause.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with intangible cultural heritage inheritors to the King Gesar epic at Chifeng Museum in Chifeng City, China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

INNER MONGOLIA, July 2019

Xi watched local artists perform the classic "Epic of King Gesar" at the Chifeng Museum during an inspection tour of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Xi stressed the importance of preserving and promoting the culture of ethnic minority groups.

The epic tells stories of King Gesar, a legendary 11th-century hero who fought evil and helped the weak. It has been passed down orally by singers, herders and farmers in Inner Mongolia, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd L), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, shows a Chinese character "Fu", which means good luck, to extend the Spring Festival greetings in Zhanqi Village of Pidu District in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

SICHUAN, February 2018

During his inspection tour in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Xi visited Zhanqi Village of Chengdu City and watched the exhibition of a number of handicrafts of intangible cultural heritage, including Shu Embroidery.
He bought a pair of cloth shoes made by local people.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R, front), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, buys a herbal sachet made by the 80-year-old villager Wang Xiuying in Mazhuang Village of Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, Dec. 12, 2017. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

JIANGSU, December 2017

During an inspection tour in Xuzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, Xi visited a sachet-making workshop at Mazhuang Village.

He praised the craftsmanship demonstrated by a representative inheritor of sachet-making, a local intangible cultural heritage skill, and bought one sachet.

"I also want to give you my support," Xi said. 

Editor: John Li