Another step toward heritage protection
遗产保护的又一举措
Exhibition highlights the power of copyright, boosting the creative confidence and marketability for Guangxi artisans, Yang Feiyue reports.
据杨飞跃报道，本次展览彰显版权的价值力量，助力提升广西手工艺人的创作底气与市场竞争力。
Five-colored rice made from a variety of plant extracts, such as maple leaves and lithospermum, sits in a bamboo basket. Rice noodles swim in rich red oil broth. Polychromatic tropical fruits gleam under exhibition lights.
以枫叶、紫草等多种植物汁液染制而成的五色糯米饭，盛放在竹篮之中。米粉浸润在浓郁的红油汤底里。缤纷的热带鲜果在展灯映照下色泽鲜亮、熠熠生辉。
Together, they bring southern flavors from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to Qianmen Street in downtown Beijing.
They are among the highlights in the exhibition, New Spirit of Craftsmanship, Empowering Through Copyright, which kicked off in mid-April and will run until June 30.
Hosted by the Guangxi publicity, culture and tourism authorities and the Copyright Society of China, the event showcases Guangxi's achievements in the protection of folk arts copyright.
At one exhibition booth, a master carver demonstrates how discarded buffalo horns become translucent shrimp. At another, a visitor asks an artificial intelligence voice modeled after legendary local folk singer Liu Sanjie about the recent March 3 celebration, or sanyuesan, featuring choir competitions and grand banquets, some lasting for weeks, helping usher in a tourism boom for the region known for its ethnic diversity.
In Guangxi, the Chinese festival from April 17 to 20 this year is an important occasion to sing in the antiphonal (call-and-response) style to find love and make new friends, as well as to worship ancestors and pray for a good harvest. It is observed by many of the region's ethnic groups, including the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, and Dong.
The exhibition is part of a national pilot program that uses copyright to protect folk arts and turn them into sustainable businesses.
The program was developed to enable artisans to register their designs, prevent cheap copies, license their work to companies and develop products, according to the exhibition's organizers.
Bai Yaohua has been surrounded by eager customers curious about the details of the horn sculptures.
At Bai's booth, practical items, such as horn combs, sit alongside artistic works priced above 10,000 yuan ($1,463).
One of his masterpieces, Spring Tide, captures the precise moment a school of prawns bursts through a breaking wave — their antennae curved and their bodies translucent.
"No one can counterfeit my work," says the man who has been carving buffalo horns for 50 years.
"The materials we use are entirely domestic buffalo and goat horns — what others might call waste. But we make use of their natural shape, texture and color. Our tools and techniques are unique," Bai says.
In addition to the craft itself, he attributes the popularity of his work partly to the local government's help in its preservation and protection.
"In the past, I never thought about copyrighting. But society evolves. Now the government is helping us," he says.
Zhou Jie, an official with the Guangxi tourism products industry association, says that a total of five categories of intangible cultural heritage have been showcased in Beijing, including horn and shell carvings, lacquerware, pottery, and bamboo-woven hats.
Thanks to copyright protection, she says, many of these crafts have found new life, attracting investment, reaching wider markets, and turning village traditions into sustainable businesses.
Zhou highlights a small pomeloskin tea canister, a signature product of Guilin lacquerware. Each May and June, young pomelos that fall from trees in Guilin are usually discarded.
Local inheritor Wang Boyang started collecting them.
"He removes the flesh, steams and dries the skin nine times, then applies layers of natural lacquer. The result is a tea canister that can age Liubao tea (a local specialty) for years," Zhou says.
Wang applied to copyright his technique. While this does not prove that registration alone drove his success, companies have been far more willing to invest since he secured the rights, Zhou says.
In addition to showcasing the fruits of folk art protection through copyrighting, the Beijing exhibition also aims to turn them into experiences that travelers will pay for, especially along tour routes.
Zhou recommends that visitors buy Maonan bamboo hats, which young men from the Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county would give to women as tokens of love during the sanyuesan festival.
The hats are ideal gifts for tourists, she says.
For foreign visitors, Zhou suggests jasmine flowers.
"Of every 10 jasmine flower products in the world, six come from the autonomous region's Hengzhou," she says. Now, Guangxi is copyrighting jasmine products — from embroidered pouches to brocade items with jasmine motifs, or goods infused with jasmine scent.
Zhou's job is to sell products, but products need buyers. That is where tourism comes in. Major local tourism players, such as Guilin Tourism Corp, have launched nearly 80 packages for visitors at the opening of the Qianmen exhibition, including packages featuring hot springs, night cruises and accommodations.
Zheng Ningli, the company's vice-president, says the region has prepared five premium travel routes. From April to May, Guangxi's 14 cities plan to host more than 180 sanyuesan events, ranging from song fairs to intangible cultural heritage performances, and concerts by pop music stars such as Jay Chou.
Although the Qianmen exhibition runs until June 30, the real test began on April 17, and Zhou expects hundreds of thousands of visitors to travel to Guangxi for the celebration. "The seed has been planted," she says.
