Foreigners celebrate Chinese New Year in Yulin City: making silver jewellery, clay sculpture and paper-cutting
YULIN, China, March 24, 2025 /CNW/ -- A news report from Yulin Media Center:
In 2024, the Chinese New Year was officially inscribed on the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Nowadays, more than 20 countries around the world have officially recognized the Chinese New Year as an official holiday, celebrated by one-fifth of the world's population. In Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, a fortress of the Great Wall with thousand-year history, an important post on the Silk Road blended the cultures of the Chinese nationalities, people witness unique festive customs and folk skills for generations of the World Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In the Intangible Cultural Heritage protection centre in Yuyang district of Yulin City, the filigree inlay skills of silversmith Yang's family, passed down for five generations, are amazing. Originating from Ming Dynasty, Yulin silver jewellery combines the Central Plains and nomadic aesthetics. Making this kind of silver jewellery needs dozens of burring processes. After trying to make silver jewellery of Chinese knot, foreign friends exclaimed, 'this kind of precision craftsmanship gives us a chance to understand superb craftsmanship of Chinese craftsmen.'
In a clay sculpture workshop, Master Cui used yellow clay to shape a variety of scenes from northern Shaanxi. Originating in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yulin clay sculptures are characterised by a strong sense of life. Old farmers in the fields and street performers are brought to life by the craftsmen. A foreigner holding his statuary 'old man with a pipe' said, 'the Chinese people's deep understanding of life is hidden in the clay.'
At the pavilion of paper-cutting artist Master Dong, foreign friends learned a multi-layer hollowing paper-cutting skill. Yulin paper-cutting has developed over the centuries. Craftsmen use scissors to cut out a scroll of northern Shaanxi folklore. When the Chinese-New-Year-themed paper cutting was completed commonly, all experiencers wished: 'may this art, which carries the wisdom of the East, be seen by the world.'
From silver jewellery to clay sculpture to paper-cutting, Yulin's craftsmen tell a story of cultural inheritance with intangible cultural heritage skills. When foreigners touch these ancient arts, Chinese New Year is not only a festival, but an important access for the world to perceive Eastern civilisation. The cultural gene traversed thousands of years, is blossoming into a new glory in the global dialogue of civilisations.
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