Craft expo goes online to showcase traditional skills
The 7th Shanghai International Hobby Craft Expo begins online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many skill masters from China's minority ethnic groups will showcase traditional techniques at the annual Shanghai International Hobby Craft Expo, which is being held online through January 15.
Traditional techniques such as embroidery, paper making, and bamboo weaving will be on display free of charge at the website of the 7th Shanghai International Hobby Craft Expo.
The expo has invited practitioners of listed cultural traditions from multiple ethnic groups, mostly from China's remote mountainous regions.
Visitors can learn the history and watch the performances of the traditional skills such as tie-dyed clothes of the Bai ethnic group, iron lanterns from Hebei Province, and Tibetan incense from the autonomous region on the "digital map" section of the online event.
Guests can also attend online training classes on the "cloud exhibition" section given by many traditional skill masters.
The online exhibition of various traditional skills and artwork from China's ethnic minority groups.
The event aims to promote these excellent skills and protect them from vanishing over time, according to the Shanghai Public Art Cooperation Center, one of the organizers of the event.
To attract local middle school and college students, these traditional skills have been taught in 50 free classes during the expo.
China has set up hundreds of traditional skills workshops in its impoverished mountain regions to help bolster employment and income among residents. A "cultural poverty alleviation campaign" has helped many artisans work at home with their traditional techniques.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many women made embroidery at home with their children at their sides, according to the center.
Shanghai's traditional skills, such as Shanghai-style paper-cutting and cheongsam making, will be highlighted along with several traditional skills of the Yangtze River Delta region.
The annual expo, initiated in 2015, has attracted tens of thousands of local visitors, especially families with children, and become a key cultural platform to promote cultural heritage.
A digital map of key cultural traditional artwork across the Chinese mainland.
