BMW's cultural convoy a road trip with a difference

A fleet of BMW cars arrived in Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan province on Oct 21. The cars were not carrying celebrities but a team of cultural experts, entrepreneurs, designers and reporters who had just finished a trip around the province to witness first-hand its rich cultural legacy.

Though a little tired, the members of the 2016 BMW China Culture Journey were excited. They had seen more than 20 outstanding items of intangible cultural heritage, including resplendent Shu embroidery and delicate bamboo paper-making during their 1,500-kilometer, eight-day journey.

Launched in 2007 by BMWChina AutomotiveTradingLtd and BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, BMW China Culture Journey is committed to exploring regional culture and promoting its inheritance and development.

Over the past 10 years, BMW fleets have driven through six of China's major cultural ecology preservation pilot zones and seen 270 items of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in 21 provinces and municipalities.

BMW has donated more than 16 million yuan ($2.37 million) for the preservation of 90 items on the brink of extinction and financed a series of intangible cultural heritage research projects.

Molly Yang, vice-president of BMW Brilliance Automotive, said an excellent corporate citizen should boast not only outstanding business capabilities but also a sense of responsibility for all stakeholders to promote the sustainable development of society.

"We are a German brand. To integrate into the Chinese market, we should understand and help safeguard traditional Chinese culture," said Yang.

"The success of the 2016 BMW China Culture Journey is a perfect illustration of our commitment to a shared development of Chinese society as well as to the conventional wisdom of teaching people to fish instead of merely giving them fish."

Highlights

This year's event focuses on promoting inheritance and innovation, and one of the project's latest commitments is to facilitate the integration of ICH into modern life.

"Innovation meets people's ever-changing demands and innovation will drive the journey further," said Yang.

She said two public platforms have been created to help endangered ICH items to sustain themselves and thrive.

One is the platform of "discovery". It upgrades the BMW China Culture Journey into one that will help to find items in urgent need of safeguarding.

The second is designed to restore their charm in new situations. A major effort is the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding, where inheritors can receive training.

The center was built in June by BMW and the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University.

This year, 10 inheritors of ICH items will be financed to receive training at the center, said Yang, where they will receive a month's training with specialist tutorials in skills enhancement, creative design and business management.

Another highlight of this year's event is that interest has been rekindled in some ICH items and cultural zones along the route of the journey, such as the Qiang Minority Cultural Ecology Preservation Zone. A mobile broadcast mode has been used for the first time for scene-based interaction with netizens.

In addition, an ICH-focused travel guide will be drafted with recommendations on food, hotels, travel and pastimes in neighboring areas. The guide will be posted on popular travel websites to encourage more young lovers of traditional culture to visit ICH sites.

BMW organized a forum on safeguarding ICH in the Qiang Minority Museum of Social Customs in northern Sichuan.

Some renowned cultural scholars, entrepreneurs from cultural and creative industries, experts on ICH and noted designers shared their views with and offered skills support to inheritors of local cultural heritage items.

BMW has also optimized the project's online platform to involve more people in the BMW China Culture Journey.

With the creation of an online museum, the automaker has helped to enable people in big cities to experience the charm of those cultural items that are usually found in remote mountainous areas.

"I hope our efforts will attract more people to participate in cultural preservation so that the inheritors can have access to more social resources and thus ensure that rare traditional culture passes on from generation to generation," said Yang.

Contact the writers at gongzhengzheng@chinadaily.com.cn and lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/24/2016 page19)