Date: Feb. 10, 2023

Translator: MENG Yangxiangqi

It is the mission of everyone at Jinan University to spread classic Chinese culture all over the world. One particular person at JNU, who insists on spreading extraordinary Chinese stories with the help of valuable cultural heritage, has been promoting the spread of Chinese cultural and creative products: Chen Ping, head of the Academy of Cultural Heritage and Creativity.

Jinan University was awarded the UNESCO Chair of World Traditional Crafts: Inheritance and Innovation in October 2022. Prof. Chen, who teaches in JNU's School of Journalism and Communication, traveled to UNESCO headquarters in Paris from Jan. 11 to 13 for a working meeting to report on the relevant work and development plans which won wide praise.

In an interview with Yang Yi of Nanfang Daily, Chen discussed her work.

Interviewer: How did you get into the field of cultural heritage research? What is the intrinsic connection between journalism and mass communication and the protection of cultural heritage?

Chen Ping: In 2000 I became involved with the International Folk Art Organization, and since then I have been engaged in cultural heritage research and preservation. In the 20-year process of being promoted from an ordinary member to the only Chinese member of the organization’s executive committee and then to global vice president for three consecutive terms, I have gained a lot of life experience and learned how to tell China's story on the international stage, which is very rewarding.

Journalism and history are deeply interconnected, and studies on ways to promote cultural heritage values have shown that in the fast-developing information age, even the most valuable culture needs to be disseminated through sustainable multi-channels by more dominant means.

With a deeper understanding of heritage protection, it is found that cultural heritage is a comprehensive knowledge system and value system. As a kind of figurative carrier, it carries the broader philosophical system, aesthetic system and life system of a country and a nation, and is a witness to civilization and a historical legacy. The connotations and values carried by these heritages are actually presented in daily life in different forms.

Interviewer: Why did you establish the Academy of Cultural Heritage and Creativity?

Chen: I led a team to research and study many intangible cultural heritage projects in 2013, and edited and published China's first Annual Development Report on Safeguarding Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage. At that time, the most important thing I learned was that China's cultural heritage needs to be passed on and protected, and its existence and inheritance methods need to be revitalized and innovated.

Therefore, cultural heritage can leverage with creative design and creative industries for interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary protection and innovation. We realize our original intention and goal through research onm some academic subjects, education and training as well as the project of social collaborative innovation.Having always taken the dissemination and promotion of classic Chinese culture as its mission, JNU has cultivated a number of  inheritors who have taken the responsibility of spreading Chinese culture to the whole world as their own mission.

Interviewer: How do you think cultural heritage should be used to tell the stories of China?

Chen: To tell China’s stories well, carriers and ways are very important. Figurative and symbolic promotion can play an intuitive role. Real cultural content can be spread artistically, while fictional content can also get real spreading effects.

Interviewer: How should we use contemporary language styles when telling traditional stories?

Chen: When the language of the new era is used to explain them, at first we may have the feeling of being frivolously offended, but slowly we will find that the content it carries is still very rich, only with the help of personalized and cute carriers. So sometimes we have to be able to withstand jokes; that is, we have to be able to withstand some self-deprecation, romantic interpretation and different aesthetics.

Interviewer: What are the academy's future plans and development?

Chen: The academy claimed the status of UNESCO's only global chair of "World Traditional Crafts: Inheritance and Innovation" in October 2022.

As a next step, the Academy will carry out special training for traditional craftsmen, especially young people and women, so they can learn about the modernization and transformation of traditional crafts, and promote the combination of traditional crafts with modern design and creative concepts. With the help of the internet, they will be turned into inheritors with creativity, design ability and marketing ability.