Global online campaign on Guan Gong culture to launch in Shanxi

"Loyalty and Honor Without Borders", a global online outreach campaign on Guan Gong culture, is set to run from Sept 20 to 23 in North China's Shanxi province. Content creators from six countries, including France, Russia and Thailand, will join journalists from Chinese and foreign media outlets such as China Daily Website, Voice of Vietnam and the Associated Press of Pakistan on a four-day trip from the provincial capital Taiyuan through the ancient city of Pingyao to Yuncheng, Guan Gong's hometown.

Guan Gong, also known as Guandi, or Emperor Guan, is the honorific title of Guan Yu, a general of the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) and the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) who is revered as a symbol of loyalty and righteousness.

At Shanxi University, guests will join international students in painting Guan Gong's opera facial makeup. In Pingyao, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the delegation will visit the Emperor Guan Temple and Rishengchang Piaohao, regarded as China's first draft bank, to trace the ties between Shanxi's merchant culture and Guan Gong worship.

In Yuncheng, the delegation will visit the Haizhou Emperor Guan Temple, the largest and best-preserved of its kind in China, and watch an immersive extended reality film on Guan Gong. They will also meet Jin Opera artist Wu Lingyun and young opera enthusiasts, and visit a cloisonné workshop and a bronze culture park.

An international youth dialogue in Yuncheng will bring together scholars, media professionals and young people from China and abroad to discuss the contemporary relevance of Guan Gong's values and how young people see loyalty and righteousness today.

The delegation will also attend the opening of the 37th Guan Gong Cultural Tourism Festival and a ceremony honoring Guan Gong.

The campaign is jointly hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of Shanxi province, China Daily Website and the Yuncheng municipal government, under the guidance of the Bureau of Cyber Communications of the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Publicity Department of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.