With a love and fascination for traditional culture, many young Chinese have begun to use their creativity to innovate (创新) using elements from China's intangible cultural heritage.
Papercutting, the traditional Chinese art of paper design, has been adopted in many creative arts, including food and clothing. On the Chinese lifestyle-focused social media platform Xiaohongshu, a video of cookies featuring a paper-cut styled dragon pattern received over 2.6 million views and 130,000 likes. Liu Shan, a stay-at-home mother who loves Chinese papercutting, is the baker behind the cookies. Liu started designing her dragon pattern last November and spent five days making the cookies before the Spring Festival. She said she would complete all the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac (生肖) since they are so well-received.
Young craftswoman Chen Lingling created a cloak featuring Chinese paper-cut patterns. As an intangible cultural heritage enthusiast, Chen has made a variety of different clothing and headwear, with the aim of making cultural heritage part of young people's daily lives. She chose auspicious patterns like phoenix and golden fish to deliver her Spring Festival greetings. People believe these patterns will bring good luck. Her video featuring the cloak has received around 750,000 views and earned her fans from both China and abroad, encouraging her to continue her interest in intangible cultural heritage.
According to the new report published by Xiaohongshu, users of the platform uploaded nearly one million posts with the topic "recreation" between February 9, the Chinese New Year's Eve, and February 16. Analysts say these recreations demonstrate (表现) young people's creativity and enthusiasm for life, and the innovations that use elements of intangible cultural heritage reflect their growing cultural confidence.
