China to hold over 12,000 cultural activities during Spring Festival

A strong festive atmosphere can be felt all around China as the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, is less than one week away. A variety of cultural activities themed on the traditional festival have been held and will take place across the country, bringing a joyous and auspicious Lunar New Year to citizens.

An artist shows a rabbit-themed paper-cutting work to a child at a cultural studio in Xinhua District of Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Jan. 12, 2023. Cultural activities promoting intangible cultural heritages were held in Xinhua District to greet the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year. [Xinhua/Luo Xuefeng]

On Jan. 14, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Cyber Communication Bureau of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission kicked off an activity aimed at promoting intangible culture heritage through livestreaming, in Weifang city, east China's Shandong Province.

The activity invites intangible cultural heritage protection organizations, inheritors and netizens to record moments related to Spring Festival customs and other practices, share their videos online, host livestreaming sessions and participate in discussions on topics related to intangible cultural heritage items, thus creating a joyous and auspicious Spring Festival for people and better satisfying their ever-growing cultural and spiritual needs.

Social media platforms are also joining in efforts to promote intangible cultural heritage items that represent the Spring Festival.

Short-video platform Douyin launched a question-and-answer session on the traditional festival, while video-streaming platform Bilibili rolled out special livestreaming coverage to showcase the glamour of traditional customs and cultural performances related to the Spring Festival. Chinese Twitter-like social media Weibo set up two parallel topics on intangible cultural heritage and the Spring Festival. It also launched a voting page for users to choose their favorite Spring Festival customs and a demonstration activity for users to showcase their skills related to intangible cultural heritage.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is offering support for cultural events across the country to liven up celebrations for the festival and support the demonstration of intangible cultural heritage in different areas.

According to credible sources, more than 2,000 intangible cultural heritage items related to the Spring Festival at provincial level and above will be held as scheduled during the Spring Festival, and over 12,000 activities aimed at promoting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage will be held online and offline in various localities during the Spring Festival.