Highlights: Session III of "Quality Lecture Series on Artistic Aesthetics and Cultivation of ICH Inheritors" of Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding

WU Bo

Associate Professor of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

Master's and Doctoral Degree Supervisor

How to seamlessly connect the expression of modern design language with the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is a thought-provoking topic. One of the directions is to coordinate technology and arts from an aesthetic point of view, and to achieve the perfect fusion of traditional craftsmanship and modern technology. Full of insights, Associate Professor WU Bo's lecture sparked inspiration and wisdom in the accumulation of arts and crafts teaching and research and design practice for many years, and deeply explained the charm and development dilemma of intangible cultural heritage. After quoting and fully proving, she vividly revealed the complex relationship between tradition and modernity in fashion design from seven interesting themes including the application of western traditional elements in fashion design and the embodiment of Chinese and Western painting elements in fashion design.

Associate Professor WU Bo emphasized that living inheritance was the ideal path for intangible cultural heritage inheritance. If we are trapped in the limitations of the past, intangible cultural heritage will lose its vitality. However, if we seek innovation while ignoring the tradition, it is easy to deviate from the standard. The focus of innovation adhering to what is right is to excavate the traditions indeed excellent and apply them flexibly. Only when intangible cultural heritage is closely combined with the needs of the times can the things made have modernity and only by connecting the past and the present in the way of living inheritance can we go further and further into the future.

Technology to art is a process. No matter which aspect is more important, technology and art cannot be separated. It is because of the opposites of technology that intangible cultural heritage has greater attraction. We should think more deeply about the results after the collision between design and technology, and also think about guiding this powerful creative inspiration into the actual products.

The explicit and implicit skills are intriguing, that is, all the skills, even the slightest point, reflect the exquisite basic skills. The reason why a classic suit has a higher value due to the large number of technical processes that persistent improving in the processing. Although many marking lines in the processing will be removed and a large number of exquisite details will eventually be hidden, the exquisite craftsmanship and condensed final effect highlight the humanistic value of traditional garment technology. Associate Professor WU Bo asked us to pay attention to the relationship between implicit and explicit skills and especially not to underestimate the explicit skills which are often the key to the inheritance of skills. It is interesting to find the core of the narrative expression of the skills, go deeper, and finally connect the whole process smoothly and present it perfectly step by step and it can arouse everyone's resonance.

Associate Professor WU Bo sincerely hopes that all representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage should not only have the original traditional skills, but also summarize their own expression methods on the way of inheritance, form their own unique modeling language, and achieve the ideal state of living inheritance.

On December 28, 2021, LI Wei, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, gave a wonderful online lecture themed on Inheritance and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Craftsmanship.

LI Wei

Professor of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

Doctoral Supervisor

Pieces of exquisite traditional handicrafts shine with the light of the wisdom of Chinese people to create social civilization. What intangible cultural heritage leaves is not only the essence of traditional culture, but also the exquisite chapters accumulated over the years.

In addition to sighing with emotion, Professor LI Wei said affectionately that the best way to inherit intangible cultural heritage was to turn to the present, that is, letting the belongings of the ancestors come to life, and endowing them with modern and fashionable design concepts, so that they can go to a higher stage. Therefore, it is necessary to explore and inherit the charm of traditional handicrafts, carry forward Chinese traditional culture with a world vision and a global vision, and show the beauty of the Oriental vision.

How to make intangible cultural heritage works stand out? Professor LI Wei emphasized that you must find your own cultural business card, that is, the exclusive style that you have when others do not have, yours are excellent when others have, and yours are special when others' are excellent. No matter from the material and color, or from memory and pattern, you can find inspiration, find your own style and form your own memory.

As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect", Professor LI Wei also pays great attention to the importance of field study. She believes that only by going to the local area, going to life, and living with the common people can you obtain the most precious memory information through personal experience.

Professor LI Wei finally concluded that what was the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage was actually a spirit and a state. "fashion is perishable, but style lasts forever". We must find our own DNA and pass on the belongings left by our ancestors from generation to generation. At the same time, we should use a more modern aesthetic vision to make intangible cultural heritage products and let them go to the market and the world.

2022 Cooperation Project of Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding

Project Leader Team of Tsinghua (Qingdao) Academy of Arts and Science Innovation Research

Chief Project Consultant | LU Xiaobo

Chief Project Manager | ZHAO Chao

Chief Project Planner | WANG Jiansong

Project Coordinator | LIU Weidong, WANG Qidi, LUO Xin

Project Cooperator | SONG Xinwei

Project Executor | CHEN Jie, FU Hang, ZHANG Yazheng

Promoter | YE Sheng, YANG Jingqiang, CUI Yawen, CHEN Siying