Company special: Premium carmaker BMW continues support of China's culture

German premium automaker BMW continued its Culture Journey this year by visiting scores of intangible cultural heritage items in Shaanxi province in late October.

Following 10 days of in-depth explorations, the fleet of the 2015 BMW China Culture Journey arrived in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, on Oct 21 to conclude the 2,500-km-plus cultural odyssey during which participants witnessed the charm of such cultural gems as the folk songs of northern Shaanxi, the making of a plaster used in traditional Chinese medicine, crafting porcelain, paper cutting and farmers' paintings.

At the celebration ceremony, BMW announced donations to 13 intangible cultural heritage practices in urgent need of protection in the province, bringing the total to 9.3 million yuan for 90 intangible cultural heritage items across the country.

The BMW China Culture Journey began in 2007 as an annual trip aimed to help protect local culture and promote cross-cultural understanding and social inclusion.

Over the past nine years, the journey has traveled across 21 provinces and municipalities, and explored six national cultural ecological protection zones and more than 240 intangible cultural heritage items.

"Speaking of our programs, we emphasize long-term commitment, a practical model and extensive participation," said Molly Yang, vice-president of public relations and CSR at BMW Brilliance Automotive.

She said BMW is committed to undertaking programs that utilize the company's advantages to solve social problems rather than simply giving out donations as many companies do.

"As a company, we do what we can by helping establish a bridge. The bridge enables us to learn more about the heritage items and helps those items reach more people through us," said Yang in explaining of the role of the Culture Journey program.

"Of course, we offer financial help to those intangible heritage items we visit. We give long-term, continuous and heartfelt attention, and this is something you cannot find at other companies."

Yang said such commitment is part of BMW's belief in the importance of culture.

"The success of a company or a brand ultimately lies in its cultural foundation. If a brand can flourish over many generations, it must involve a process of passing on culture. It requires something spiritual. Cars and products alone are not enough."

Her words were echoed by Huang Yung-sung, an advocate of traditional Chinese culture and publisher of the magazine Echo.

Huang, who first visited northern Shaanxi 26 years ago as a cultural expert to investigate local arts, said the importance of culture not only speaks to the success of a company, but also to a nation's prosperity.

"When a nation has good craftsmanship, it is more inclined to have a good light industry, then a good heavy industry and then a good sophisticated industry. In a word, handicraft are the basis of all industries," Huang said.

As China has seen massive economic and social changes, BMW is updating their methods of helping the preservation of intangible heritage items.

"Things are changing fast nowadays and it is out of this consideration that we included many innovative attempts in this year's Culture Journey, and we achieved a lot," Yang said.

She said to attract more attention to those intangible cultural heritage items, BMW initiated online campaigns on popular social media platform WeChat, where those interested could follow the journey on their smartphones.

"More than 26,000 people joined us the second day we started the online campaign. next year will mark the 10th anniversary of our Culture Journey and in 2016 we will continue to bring into play our resources and do more for the preservation of intangible heritage items," she said.

Yang also explained the difference between this year's journey and those in the past.

"We used to simply visit those items. But this year we explored more about the items and invited cultural experts and celebrities to share their knowledge and understanding of those items.

"For example, we learned that the process of making the Ma Mingren plaster involves the ancient Chinese wisdom and shows how profound traditional Chinese medicine theories are."

BMW said that, through the journeys, participants had deepened their understanding of heritage and been deeply moved by the inheritors' adherence to their cultural beliefs. The automaker believes the meaning of life is to pass on something of value to future generations.

Those on the Culture Journeys saw that the ancient wisdom and spirit of their Chinese ancestors could be passed on through the dedication and devotion of an individual, a family or even an entire ethnic group.

"We preserve China's intangible heritage items, which can be said to be the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Also, such items belong not only to Chinese but also to humankind," Yang said.

Thanks to its efforts in advocating and protecting Chinese cultural elements, BMW became the nation's first auto company to win an Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Award in June 2014.

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/02/2015 page18)