Popular TV drama highlights intangible cultural heritages

A still from the TV drama Meet Yourself shows a wood carving master. [Photo/Official Weibo account of the TV drama Meet Yourself]

Wood carving

Jianchuan wood carving, originating from Jianchuan county of Dali in Yunnan, has a history of more than 1,000 years. As a technique of wood carving, it has rich ethnic culture connotations and fuses bold and delicate styles together, creating unique charm.

The carvings usually use patterns involving flowers, plants, landscapes and auspicious symbols such as dragons and phoenixes. This type of wood carving is widely used in their architecture and furniture as well as arts and crafts for decoration. Each piece of wood carving carries enormous efforts from the masters.

Jianchuan county was named as the hometown of wood carving art in 1996, and Jianchuan wood carving was listed in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Episodes in the TV show also reveal that the cultural inheritance of the traditional craft of wood carving faces challenges. The show discusses how machines are taking place of handwork, as they are more efficient and less costly; and also looks at how young people are chasing for more job opportunities and money in big cities and are not willing to stay in the small village.