Foreign Diplomats Praise Yulin Intangible Cultural Heritage

VOK NEWS/Kathmandu, 2024 June 2, Sunday. On May 31, The three-day Northern Shaanxi Folk Song Exhibition (Yulin) and International Intangible Cultural Heritage Exchange and Mutual Learning Event culminated in a vibrant and lively final day in Beijing.

Diplomats and public diplomacy experts from Nepal, the Kingdom of Lesotho, Romania, the Republic of Ecuador, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Central African Republic, as well as the Asia-Pacific core group of the Belt and Road Initiative, along with intangible cultural heritage inheritors and university professors, graced the event. This gathering of international intangible cultural heritage brought together guests from both home and abroad to discuss cooperation, protection, and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.

At the event, music inheritors from Russia and Yulin performed together on stage. When “Katyusha” met “Xintianyou”, the distinct styles of the songs both effectively conveyed the emotions and thoughts of the singers. Artists performed on a stage designed to resemble the loess plateau, complete with sound and light effects creating waterfalls and cave dwellings. This immersive setting instantly transported guests to an environment rich with Northern Shaanxi’s local flavor. Such innovative exhibition forms inject new vitality into the dissemination of traditional culture.

Nepalese Ambassador to China, Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, commented, “I really enjoyed the presentation style of today’s exhibition. Unlike any exhibition I have seen before, this one used technology to comprehensively showcase the historical development of Northern Shaanxi folk songs. I look forward to deep exchanges between the intangible cultural heritage of Nepal and Northern Shaanxi in the future, further promoting friendly interactions between our two regions.”

Digby James Wren, Advisor to the Belt and Road Asia-Pacific Core Group Committee, exclaimed, “I had the pleasure of visiting Yulin a few years ago. The people there are warm and hospitable, the food is delicious, and what impressed me the most were the local yangko performances and folk songs. Seeing such performances again today, I couldn’t help but join in the dancing and singing. The culture of Northern Shaanxi is truly captivating.”

It is reported that this exhibition centers on live performances of classic Northern Shaanxi folk songs, complemented by various display methods. In the limited space, the exhibition fully presents the “past and present”, “form and spirit”, “people and objects”, and “standstill and movement” of Northern Shaanxi folk songs. This represents an important exploration and practice by Yulin City in showcasing its musical intangible cultural heritage and lays a solid foundation for establishing a new localized platform for international exchange and cooperation in intangible cultural heritage.

Photo: Melsom Ojha