Shandong province reaps results of cultural transformation

These days East China's Shandong province is reaping a raft of fruitful results from its cultural transformation, powered by cultural innovation.

During the recent May Day holiday, hordes of tourists headed to the Shandong handmade crafts museum, located in the Daiyue district of Tai'an city, to experience the charms of intangible cultural heritage from the local area.

By combining commercial products with intangible cultural heritage and tourism and culture, their added value increases.

In a bid to establish a demonstration area that promotes integrated culture and tourism, Daiyue district has replanned its cultural and tourism industry with the help of professional consulting firms.

It has been building three workshops featuring intangible cultural heritage, in the process promoting the brand of Tai'an handicrafts.

Elsewhere, in the prefecture-level city of Jining – as the birthplace of Confucian culture – traditional culture has been integrated into schools through innovative transformation.

At the Jining Seventh Middle School, special cultural courses based on The Analects of Confucius have been introduced and various lessons and educational excursions related to traditional culture have been launched, said Liu Hui, principle of the school.

Students carefully paint Peking Opera masks at the Jining Seventh Middle School. [Photo by Wang Qian for chinadaily.com.cn]

Boasting rich tourism resources, Jining witnessed a tourism boom in the first quarter this year, with 21 key scenic spots receiving more than 7 million tourists.

Visitors learn about one of the exhibits at the Nishan Sacredland Scenic Spot in Jining city. [Photo by Wang Qian for chinadaily.com.cn]

In addition, people can now explore traditional culture on their digital devices. An over 30-meter-long digital dynamic picture scroll from the Confucius Museum can currently be read online, showing the vivid stories of Confucius.

Visitors examine a splendent garment at the Confucius Museum. [Photo by Wang Qian for chinadaily.com.cn]

Looking ahead, plans are for Shandong to focus on establishing digital cultural product trading and to display high-tech presentations and create related digital platforms, to enable technology to empower the transformation of culture. (Edited by Chen Chuxuan)