China's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day falls on the second Saturday of June every year, around which the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province usually launches a series of events featuring various local intangible cultural heritage items, and this year is no exception.

From June 12 to June 17 this year, Guangdong holds an exhibition entitled 2021 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, with the main venue in Jiangmen. Due to a COVID-19 resurgence, this year's events are mainly held online in the form of live streaming.

Palm-leaf fan (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

Online fair featuring local intangible cultural heritage items

An online fair featuring local intangible cultural heritage items has kicked off on Taobao, a Chinese online shopping app, where a special zone for Guangdong's local intangible cultural heritage items has been set up. A total of 32 stores highlighting Cantonese characteristics have been selected, ranging from local traditional crafts to food.

From June 12 to June 25, search for "广东非遗购物节" (pinyin: guang dong fei yi gou wu jie) on Taobao, you'll see the above-mentioned products.

Another online fair featuring various cultural and creative products

The fair is being held on the Tmall flagship store and micro store on WeChat of Guangdong Museum from June 12 to June 20, displaying and selling the province's special cultural and creative products online.

Egg carving (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

China started to celebrate cultural heritage day on the second Saturday of June in 2006 and In 2017, it was renamed Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.

Additionally, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a new group of 325 national intangible cultural heritage items on June 10 in Beijing, increasing the list established in 2006 to 1,557 items.

Eighteen Guangdong items entered the list, including Mok Gar Kuen (Kungfu), cooking skills of Chaozhou cuisine, Choy Li Fut (Kungfu), and acupuncture (Lingnan Chen's acupuncture therapy). As of now, Guangdong has a total of 165 national intangible cultural heritage items.

Items such as the cheongsam and the Tin Hau (Goddess of the Sea Matsu) Festival from the Hong Kong SAR, and Cantonese plays as well as cuisines of locally born Portuguese in the Macao SAR were also added to the list.

Author | Monica & Nancy (intern)

Editor | Keane & Jerry