Schools pass on intangible cultural heritage

YINCHUAN－Although 11-year-old Li Chenxi may not be aware that she has become one of the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, she has become adept at sewing crafts with batik fabrics in school art class.

The fifth-grader at the No 2 Primary School in Xingqing district of Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, is fond of competing with her peers in making tie-dye and batik works, which are then displayed on walls around the school.

"Color tie-dye patterns are irregular and have a casual beauty, while batik can make specific patterns like butterflies and flowers," says Li.

After learning the skills for more than a year, she and her classmates usually combine these two techniques to make dolls and dresses.

The school became a pilot of the project to introduce intangible cultural heritage as part of after-school classes in November. Since then, 1,000 students in the school have taken part in the on-campus art classes, learning tie-dye, batik and paper-cutting.

Wu Shuyan, an art teacher in charge of the school's tie-dye and batik class, says that she went to Southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to learn the skills from local inheritors in order to offer the class at the school.

Since China's implementation of the "double reduction" education policy, which aims to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for primary and middle school students, many schools have integrated traditional Chinese culture into after-school classes and activities.

Some schools tap the potential of their own teachers while others invite inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to guide the students.

Second-grader Zhang Lexuan at the school in Yinchuan has developed an interest in paper-cutting. She folded a piece of paper in half, drew a line with a pencil, and dexterously used scissors to make a paper-cut of Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. She is proud to see her work shown on the school's display wall.

When first seeing the rope-weaving pieces, which look like owls, butterflies, lotus flowers, lotus pods and tasseled wall hangings, Huang Yujia, 11, a student at the No 12 Primary School in Yinchuan, was amazed.

"I thought how magic it was that a piece of string could be actually woven into a flower, and I decided to learn it immediately so that I can make such gifts for my parents and friends," she says.

After a few lessons, the little girl learned to weave lock knots, corn knots and Chinese knots, and she even tapped her creativity to make a coaster from dried grass.

"In the after-school art classes, older pupils can help the younger ones. There is so much fun," she says.

Hao Aixin, vice principal of the No 12 Primary School, says that six art teachers have been involved in drafting a teaching manual for rope-weaving to make the after-school class better prepared.

Xinhua