2025 Yantai Civic Culture and Arts Season & Yantai Hi-Tech Zone Cultural and Creative ICH Market Kickoff Off
To thoroughly implement the overall deployment of Yantai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism for the 2025 Civic Cultural and Art Season, Yantai Hi-tech Zone recently held the “Cultural Aesthetics Day” Cultural and Creative Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Market. Forming an urban linkage with the main venue of the municipal-level art season, the event aims to achieve public engagement through culture as a bond and public welfare as the core, delivering a tangible and immersive cultural feast to citizens.
Hosted by the Economic Development Bureau of Yantai Hi-tech Zone and co-organized by the Mashan Subdistrict Office, the event featured four major sections: ICH Exhibitions, Cultural Experience, Convenient Services, and Cultural Tourism Promotion. With a total of 25 booth projects, it covered 20 representative cultural and creative ICH projects, including Yantai Paper-Cutting, Jiaodong Flower-Shaped Steamed Buns, and Gourd Painting, as well as 5 categories of public services such as health consultations and small appliance repairs.
At 9 a.m., the Yantai Hi-tech Zone Cultural and Creative ICH Market kicked off at the Science and Technology Cultural Theme Education Base. At the event, the Jiaodong Flower-Shaped Steamed Buns booth showcased exquisitely crafted and vividly shaped flower buns and crispy sugar-coated flatbreads brought by the Chinese Cuisine College of Shandong City Service Technician College. Their vibrant colors and intricate craftsmanship quickly drew crowds, with citizens lingering to experience the making process. Han Yuehu, the representative inheritor of the municipal-level ICH project Yantai Paper-Cutting, displayed themed works and offered the hand-on-hand guidance to children, teaching them to cut unique paper designs to take home. The booth was surrounded by visitors eager to feel the charm of traditional paper-cutting. ICH gourd paintings exhibited a spectrum of forms, with bold, vivid colors and delicate linework transforming gourds into dynamic artistic vessels that carried a colorful artistic universe, captivating visitors. Zou Yanhong, a master of traditional Chinese knotting techniques, demonstrated weaving methods on-site, transforming colorful ropes into exquisite artworks symbolizing good luck. Liu Yushuang from the Runxintang Studio developed cultural and creative products featuring oracle bone inscriptions of lucky phrases, Chinese zodiac signs, and family totems. She led children in painting oracle bone inscriptions, gave fun lectures on their history, and hosted oracle bone flight chess games, making ancient Chinese characters “come alive”. The studio also developed research and learning lectures, integrating diverse ICH elements with oracle bone culture. The most popular attraction was the ancient-style sugar painting booth, crowded with children. Amber-colored sugar syrup flowed on the aluminum plate, embodying the rhythm of a thousand-year-old craft. Sugar painting artist Li Yan held a copper ladle, flicking her wrist gently and deftly swirling sugar threads to create a vivid Nezha figure before our eyes, infused with the scent of caramel. As the syrup cooled and solidified, children’s laughter mingled with the sweet aroma, crafting the warmest memories of spring.
Additionally, projects such as artistic copper wire crafting, hand-knitted weaving, rope art, lacquer fans, 3D printing, and children’s face painting were highly favored by younger crowds. The convenient service area also became another highlight of the event, where the Hi-Tech Zone Hospital carried out free health consultation activities, receiving unanimous praise from on-site citizens. The volunteer team from Shandong Business Institute provided small appliance repair services with a 95% repair rate. Blue Sky Environment promoted garbage classification by incorporating education into amusement. The district’s culture and tourism department distributed Yantai cultural tourism maps, guides, and other promotional materials on-site to provide convenient guidance for citizens’ travel. “Visiting the market today, I not only felt the charm of culture but also enjoyed convenient public services. Such events truly resonate with the people’s needs,” exclaimed citizen Ms. Wang.
The event showcased the artistic charm of traditional culture, promoting its integration into modern life in a more vibrant manner. Not only did it satisfy the public’s eager expectation for high-quality cultural experiences, but it also built a bridge between ICH inheritance and modern consumption. During the event, over 500 visitors visited the market to immerse themselves in the vitality of traditional craftsmanship and the bustling atmosphere. The enthusiastic on-site transaction atmosphere effectively stimulated the cultural and tourism consumption. In the next step, the Economic Development Bureau of Yantai Hi-tech Zone will take public needs as the guide, continuously strengthen the efforts of public welfare services, further optimize the public cultural service system, and plan to launch more cultural activities that combine regional characteristics with contemporary connotations, so that high-quality cultural resources can better benefit the people and continuously enhancing their sense of cultural happiness and fulfillment.
Reported by Lightning News Journalist Yu Beijia, Correspondent Xiu Peirong
