Yunmeng county in Central China's Hubei taps into rich cultural relics to develop cultural tourism

November 09, 2024 04:51 PM AEDT | By Cision
Follow us on Google News: https://kalkinemedia.com/resources/assets/public/images/google-news.webp

BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from People's Daily: Yunmeng county in central China's Hubei province is leveraging its rich historical and cultural resources to boost the development of cultural tourism.

The local authorities have explored a new path to drive cultural tourism with cultural heritage, with concrete measures such as establishing a research station for cultural relic protection, promoting innovations in preserving and carrying forward traditional arts like shadow puppetry, and developing cultural tourism projects.

Although Yunmeng county is the smallest county in Hubei province, it is home to over 5,000 pieces of cultural relics, including those recognized as Chinese national treasures.

At the end of 1975, 12 tombs dating from the late Warring States Period (475 B.C. - 221 B.C.) to the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. - 207 B.C.) were unexpectedly unearthed during the excavation of a water channel in Shuihudi, Yunmeng county.

In Tomb No. 11, several piles of bamboo slips caught the attention of archaeologists, who then meticulously collected, numbered, and cleaned over 1,000 bamboo slips from the tomb.

Soon after, experts identified these bamboo slips as historical records of the period when the seven states during the Warring States Period were unified under the Qin Dynasty, meticulously recorded by an official named Xi in over 40,000 neatly written Qin characters.

A major part of the records, in particular, is eighteen categories of Qin laws, which is considered the earliest and most complete legal code discovered in China to date, indicating that over 2,200 years ago, ancient China's legal system had already been systematically established.

So far, a total of 36 Chinese national first-class cultural relics have been unearthed in Yunmeng, making it a favored destination for archaeologists.

In addition to the bamboo slips, the other cultural relics unearthed in the county include numerous precious wood carvings, wooden lacquerware, and two family letters inscribed on wooden tablets, which were written by brothers Heifu and Jing to their brother in "Zhong" during the end of the Warring States Period, believed to be the world's oldest family letter.

The Yunmeng County Museum houses over 5,000 pieces of cultural relics, including 18 Chinese national first-class artifacts, making it a prominent one among county-level museums in China.

The raw lacquer for wooden lacquerware is highly valuable, involving intricate crafting processes. The large quantity of lacquerware unearthed in Yunmeng county attests to its past prosperity.

Li Lan, a researcher with the Hubei Provincial Museum, has been designated to dehydrate and reinforce the newly unearthed lacquerware, as well as mending any existing damages.

The task is extremely complex. The dehydration process alone takes at least one to two years, and for larger pieces in better condition, it may even take over five years.

Previously, the Yunmeng County Museum, due to inadequate facilities, had to transport restoration-required artifacts to cities like Wuhan and Jingzhou in Hubei province.

The long-distance journey risked inflicting damage on the cultural relics, with even a slight mishap possibly causing significant harm.

The establishment of the Yunmeng workstation, a major research center for the protection of unearthed lacquerware under China's National Cultural Heritage Administration, has notably improved the conservation and restoration efforts in Yunmeng county.

Now, Li spends much of her time training local technicians in artifact restoration techniques.

To better preserve and inherit traditional culture, Yunmeng has consistently worked on innovating both the methods and content of cultural presentation.

Inspired by the story of the Qin Dynasty official Xi, Li Shenghua, president of the sports association of a residential community in Chengguan township, Yunmeng county, has led the local dance team in creating a show named "ink dance of Qin bamboo slips."

In the performance, dancers dressed in traditional Chinese attire hold bamboo slips and use water sleeves to imitate the scene of historians recording events on bamboo slips with a brush.

The show won an award at a municipal-level competition during its first performance, and the team was even invited to perform it overseas.

Out of a passion for the arts and a desire to preserve culture through shadow puppetry, Liu Junming, a member of the Yunmeng county committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has teamed up with local intangible cultural heritage inheritor Fang Dingmin and shadow puppet artist Qin Ligang to create a shadow puppet skit called "play within a play about Qin law."

Qin Ligang is a Chinese national-level inheritor of Yunmeng shadow puppetry dedicated to the innovative development of this traditional art form.

Not confined to fixed music scores, Qin excels at incorporating current events into his performances.

"We must not only learn the old plays but also create new ones that capture the attention of young people," Qin said.

The protection of traditional arts is like a rescue mission against "forgetting", according to Qin, who noted that the more novel and relatable the art, the more likely it is able to impress the audience.

"Only by being remembered can it be passed down through generations," he said.

A few years ago, Qin took on a "steel apprentice" - an intelligent robot equipped with sensors all over its body.

In 2017, Qin and the robot performed the classic play "Wu Song Fights the Tiger" in the Palace Museum in Beijing. During the performance, the robot led a shadow puppet tiger with its mechanical hand, executing lifelike movements programmed into it, capturing the attention of young audience.

"With the combination of artificial intelligence and our innovation, we won't have to worry about traditional craftsmanship being lost," Qin remarked.

Extracting unique cultural traits from its historical heritage, Yunmeng is exploring better ways to coordinate the relationships between cultural relic preservation, tourism, and commercial operations.

In recent years, the county has established an intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, built a Qin bamboo slip memorial park, and improved its libraries and cultural centers, earning the title of the "hometown of folk culture and arts in Hubei province."

Delving into its profound cultural heritage, this thousand-year-old small county is now radiating new charm.


Disclaimer

The content, including but not limited to any articles, news, quotes, information, data, text, reports, ratings, opinions, images, photos, graphics, graphs, charts, animations and video (Content) is a service of Kalkine Media Pty Ltd (“Kalkine Media, we or us”), ACN 629 651 672 and is available for personal and non-commercial use only. The principal purpose of the Content is to educate and inform. The Content does not contain or imply any recommendation or opinion intended to influence your financial decisions and must not be relied upon by you as such. Some of the Content on this website may be sponsored/non-sponsored, as applicable, but is NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold the stocks of the company(s) or engage in any investment activity under discussion. Kalkine Media is neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice through this platform. Users should make their own enquiries about any investments and Kalkine Media strongly suggests the users to seek advice from a financial adviser, stockbroker or other professional (including taxation and legal advice), as necessary.
The content published on Kalkine Media also includes feeds sourced from third-party providers. Kalkine does not assert any ownership rights over the content provided by these third-party sources. The inclusion of such feeds on the Website is for informational purposes only. Kalkine does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the content obtained from third-party feeds. Furthermore, Kalkine Media shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the content obtained from third-party feeds, nor for any damages or losses arising from the use of such content.
Kalkine Media hereby disclaims any and all the liabilities to any user for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising from any use of the Content on this website, which is provided without warranties. The views expressed in the Content by the guests, if any, are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Kalkine Media. Some of the images/music that may be used on this website are copyrighted to their respective owner(s). Kalkine Media does not claim ownership of any of the pictures displayed/music used on this website unless stated otherwise. The images/music that may be used on this website are taken from various sources on the internet, including paid subscriptions or are believed to be in public domain. We have made reasonable efforts to accredit the source wherever it was indicated as or found to be necessary.

This disclaimer is subject to change without notice. Users are advised to review this disclaimer periodically for any updates or modifications.

Two ASX Listed Stocks Giving Bullish Indications

Recent Articles

Investing Tips

Previous Next
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.