Shanxi's heritage takes the spotlight in Geneva

BEIJING, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China Daily:

During a reception held by the Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva in late September, China's Shanxi province showcased its intangible cultural heritage to more than 100 foreign diplomats attending the event.

Officials and artists from Shanxi hosted an ICH exhibition, attracting attention from guests with its rich portfolio of exhibits.

Yang Xuefei, a knotting artist from the northern Shanxi city of Datong, for instance, displayed 48 brooches made using 'Datong knotting', a recognized ICH craft.

She made some brooches for Swiss guests on-site.

While featuring the edelweiss, a national symbol of Switzerland, the pieces also contained elements of Datong's local culture — the ornamental flying ribbons inspired by the Yungang Grottoes statues.

Yang and her colleagues have created more than 500 creative cultural products based on the Datong knotting technique and local culture.

In recent years, Yang's team has displayed the products in a number of countries, making these small articles a vehicle to promote Chinese culture globally.

Bai Huaibing, a master inheritor of the ancient colored glaze production technique in Jiexiu, displayed more than 20 exhibits at the event.

The city of Jiexiu boasts a millennium-long history of colored glaze craftsmanship, hosting numerous buildings and ornaments adorned with this well-preserved art form. The colored glaze pieces include ceramics, building ornaments and sculptures. 

Hailing from a family with many generations dedicated to colored glaze production, Bai has developed a great number of glazed items that appeal to modern aesthetics.

At the exhibition, the artist taught visitors how to apply glaze to pottery bodies, giving them a better understanding of the traditional Chinese art.

Also on display at the event were Shangdang brocade from Changzhi, hand-polished lacquerware from Pingyao and chengni ink slabs from Yuncheng, as well as many others.

The exhibition's organizers said Shanxi is renowned for its rich intangible cultural heritage resources. It boasts 182 representative ICH items on the national list and 198 nationally recognized ICH inheritors. In addition, it hosts more than 1,000 provincial-level ICH items.

The exhibition had attracted visitors' attention to Shanxi. Many visitors, who were not so familiar with the province, began to browse maps of Shanxi on their smartphones and even talked about plans to visit.