Suzhou shows off its cultural palette

Special week provides glimpse of unique crafts, specialties of Jiangsu province city

East China's Jiangsu province is bringing Suzhou Arts and Culture Week to Beijing, highlighting its local culture and adding its exclusive flavor to the capital amid growing enthusiasm for the 2022 Olympic Games.

The event, which is being held from Jan 6-20, is part of the Meet in Beijing Olympic Culture Festival and the 22nd Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival, which kicked off on Jan 6 and runs until Feb 18.

The festival aims to celebrate the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, which stages 100 performances and events from 22 countries and regions online and offline.

During the Suzhou Arts and Culture Week, performances by Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theater, Suzhou Opera Troupe, Suzhou Pingtan Troupe, Suzhou Song and Dance Theater, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Ballet Theater, and Kunshan Contemporary Kunqu Opera Theater, took audiences at the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center and the Tianqiao Theater on an exciting journey.

Providing a glimpse into the elegant city, the event allows the world to rediscover the beauty of Jiangnan, which refers to the region south of the Yangtze River where Suzhou city is located, according to local officials.

An important part of the Suzhou Arts and Culture Week, the Suzhou Spring Festival Experience Week held in the Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from Jan 6-10 presented a feast for culture lovers.

The week featured Suzhou's intangible cultural heritage. Taohuawu Woodcut New Year Pictures, an integral part of Spring Festival in Suzhou, gave a glimpse of what Spring Festival means to people in Suzhou. Meanwhile, Suzhou-style embroidery, frog fasteners and Songjin brocade originating from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) entranced visitors with their beauty and artistry.

People who are not familiar with Suzhou cuisine may get clues from the exhibits such as gaotuan, a savory treat made with various kinds of rice, Suzhou specialty Pingwang spicy sauce and Biluochun, a type of green tea common to the city.

The sounds of guqin, a traditional music instrument, Kunqu Opera and pingtan, a traditional musical and verbal performing art popular in Suzhou, have made visitors stop and listen in awe, showcasing Suzhou's distinctive charm.

With the Year of the Tiger approaching, several cultural and creative products combining intangible cultural heritage with tiger designs caught visitors' eyes. Depictions of tigers worked well with traditional Suzhou-style embroidery, fruit pit carving, clay sculpture, paper-cutting, copper stove sachet and K'o-ssu, better known as Kesi, a traditional type of decorative silk work in China.

"We hope that audiences from home and abroad can learn about the richness of the exquisite and elegant Suzhou-style life," said an organizer.

In addition, China Film Archive presented a screening event for the documentary The Magical Craftsmanship of Suzhou on Jan 8.

The documentary tells a story of 12 representative artisans who specialize in nine regional crafts, including lantern making, Songjin brocade, Suzhou-style embroidery, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) furniture and olive pit carving.

Sun Zengtian, the documentary's director, said: "From the interaction between people and crafts, we would like to present the core of contemporary craftsmanship; an open and tolerant mind, attention to detail in conducting research, the virtue of respecting all life and perseverance in pursuing innovation."

Sun said these inheritors are not just witnesses to an era, but creators. The documentary is not only about art itself but humanity. Some of the inheritors have the task of preserving crafts and others develop bonds between apprentice and master.

Wang Xiaowen, in his 70s, has been making ornate lanterns for more than 50 years and he is the only national-level inheritor of this local craft.

"There are essentially two types of lights in the world: lights for others and lights for oneself. The lights made for others are hung outside and turned off after they've served their purpose. The lights made for oneself are placed in one's heart and are always luminous," Wang says in the documentary.

The crafts portrayed in the documentary are only a small part of intangible cultural heritage items in Suzhou. With a rich history of art forms, the city is home to six items that were each listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, namely Kunqu Opera, guqin, Dragon Boat Festival, K'o-ssu, Songjin brocade and Xiangshan Bang traditional architecture construction.

Moreover, in Suzhou, 50 inheritors work to preserve 33 national intangible cultural heritage items, 143 inheritors focus on promoting 124 provincial-level items, and 464 inheritors are devoted to 172 city-level items.

In 2014, Suzhou was listed by UNESCO in its Creative Cities Network as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts.

Inside the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), is the Fine Crafts of Suzhou pavilion, which opened to the public in May 2021. It displays more than 200 crafts by 36 artisans from the city.

yinruowei@chinadaily.com.cn