(Cultural China Tour) Yangzhou is seen through cultural revitalization on a moonlit night

China News Service, Yangzhou, April 22, title: Three-thirds of the world is bright and the moon night is revitalized, look at Yangzhou

Author Zhu Xiaoying Guoxuan

Throughout the ages, the city of Yangzhou has had a different kind of magic. Countless literati have written poems and chanted it, leaving behind a large number of well-known masterpieces. As one of the first batch of famous historical and cultural cities in China, Yangzhou City has many historic sites and remains, attracting tourists from all over the world. From cultural museums, the Grand Canal to intangible cultural heritage, Yangzhou’s historical context has been passed down through activation.

Modern cultural museums: connecting the past and present of the ancient city

In recent years, the “museum craze” has continued to heat up, and popular museums such as the China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou are hard to get a ticket for. Museums have transformed from a single cultural display venue into an important carrier that displays a city’s image, promotes tourism development, and meets people’s spiritual and cultural needs.

The picture shows the exhibition hall in the China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou.Photo by Zhang Weiran

In recent years, Yangzhou has taken multiple measures to protect cultural relics by using scientific and technological means to promote the preventive protection and digitalization of cultural relics in the collection. The former site of the silkworm breeding farm was used to build the Grand Canal and Maritime Silk Road Exhibition Hall, the Wang’s Salt Merchant’s Residence was used to build the Grand Canal Salt Merchant Cultural Exhibition Hall, and the Lushi Salt Merchant’s Residence and Ding’s Ma’s Residence were used to build the China Huaiyang Cuisine Museum and The Yangzhou Traditional Culture Experience Zone uses the Shi Kefa Memorial Hall to build a cultural base for clean government, and uses the Marco Polo Memorial Hall as a link to create a platform for Sino-Italian cultural exchanges.

The Living Grand Canal: Throughout the City’s Past and Present History

A history of the development of the Grand Canal is almost a history of the development of ancient Yangzhou. The Grand Canal nurtured Yangzhou and was the “root” and “soul” of the ancient Jiangdu.

Yangzhou adheres to the “Canal +” cultural and tourism integration, focuses on organic urban renewal, closely follows the “Two Ancients and One Lake” cultural and tourism sector, and promotes the construction of the North Moat Cultural Tourism Cluster, the Yangzhou Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Guangling Section) Cultural Belt and the Ming and Qing Ancient City Protection and other project construction. Use “micro-updates” to enhance the protection and utilization of Dongguan Street, Pishi Street, Renfengli and other blocks to integrate history, culture, modern life, and cultural tourism development. Enrich the supply of canal cultural tourism products, create special water and land tours such as “Traveling Yangzhou with Poetry” and “Canal Water Tour”, optimize study products in Yizheng, Jiangdu and other places, and launch cultural tourism brands such as “Hey! Leather Market”.

Yangzhou increases nighttime cultural tourism consumption and releases the potential of nighttime cultural tourism consumption. Through works such as the Yang Opera “Alian Crossing the River” and the Yangzhou folk art “The River Goes North”, a number of small theaters are deployed in scenic spots, neighborhoods and old factories to create a new model of cultural and tourism integration of “watching scenery during the day and watching plays at night”.

Smart intangible cultural heritage: connecting modern people’s lives

Yangzhou has built a small intangible cultural heritage theater. By performing Yangzhou Pinghua, Pingtan, puppet shows, etc. in Dongrong Garden, Li Changle’s former residence, and Xie Fuchun’s former site, Yangzhou’s intangible cultural heritage is organically combined with food and folk customs, expanding a new immersive experience of integrating culture and tourism. model. Through intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, teaching and productive protection, we will increase the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and expand communication channels.

The picture shows Wu Xiaoping, the representative inheritor of Su embroidery (Yangzhou embroidery), a representative project of national intangible cultural heritage, showing off his skills in the Dongguan Historical and Cultural District of Yangzhou.Photo by Zhang Weiran

The interpretative power of Yangzhou’s intangible cultural heritage has been further enhanced. In the near future, the local government will also organize activities such as “Unlimited Space Intangible Cultural Heritage into Scenic Areas” to promote the branding of woodblock printing techniques, enhance the market appeal of traditional craft products such as Yangzhou lacquerware, and promote intangible cultural heritage into modern people’s lives. (over)