Born into a family of mass sculptors, Lang Jiaziyu began learning the art of mass sculpture at age 3. The young woman has had a passion for traditional crafts since her childhood, although she also had doubts about how to keep traditional art alive in an era of constant change.
Lang found his way through advanced digital technology. On the one hand, he digitally cataloged his works of mass sculpture, protecting them through techniques such as 3D scanning. On the other hand, he shared his creations and his creative process online, spreading this intangible cultural heritage and gaining up to 2 million followers.
“They are not only my followers, but also followers of traditional Chinese culture,” he said.
Lang’s story shows that young people are not only heirs and promoters of traditional culture, but also beneficiaries of cultural development, as, in recent years, various cultural forms have emerged more vividly and creatively thanks to new technologies. for example, attracting even more young people.
On one of China’s most popular video platforms, Bilibili, a video by content creator “Jiang Xunqian,” titled “Girls challenging an ancient skill – Iron Flowers, a folk art of throwing molten iron to create fireworks,” gained widespread popularity and became the only traditional culture video among the platform’s top 10 original videos in 2023.
Data from Bilibili revealed that in 2022 alone, up to 274 million internet users watched video content about traditional culture on the platform, with a total of 12 billion views. The numbers also revealed that the majority of these videos are created and uploaded by young content creators.
Another popular video-sharing app, Kuaishou, also reported that a video related to intangible cultural heritage is uploaded every 3 seconds on the platform and that more than 60 percent of these are produced by users born after the 1990s.
Youth from other countries have also been sharing their traditions and arts through videos on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and TikTok.
For example, young internet users created a group called “Social Distance Powwow” on Facebook, where they share videos about Native American cultural traditions, such as drumming and dancing, to connect indigenous people and spread Native culture. Americans.
“Yanhong Aimee,” another content creator at Bilibili, specializes in creating exquisite traditional costumes using everyday materials. For example, you can use tin cans to make intricate Miao headdresses and phoenix crowns, a type of headdress worn by main characters in Peking Opera.
Feng Ji, producer of the well-known game Black Myth: Wukonghas expressed that he believes that digital technology has natural advantages in promoting the development and dissemination of traditional culture, helping new generations to accept and appreciate traditional culture through media such as video games.
“I think it will become something very fragile if there is no modern technology that gives it [al patrimonio cultural intangible] an opportunity for more modern people to better understand and appreciate it,” Feng said.
In the opinion of Zhou Min, vice director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University, intangible cultural heritage has its “fragility”, but, through digital technology, it can gain resilience.
“[El patrimonio cultural intangible] “It can adapt to many scenarios and environments, allowing it to evolve and show new life,” Zhou added.
The communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China He urged the Chinese people to strengthen cultural confidence and work to advance their traditional culture, keep up with the latest trends in information technology, cultivate a vast talent pool in the cultural sector, and boost the cultural creativity of the entire nation.
Young Internet users in China have continuously explored and provided their own answers on how to protect, inherit, innovate and share China’s excellent traditional culture, said Chen Caiyin, director of public affairs at Bilibili.
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