Intangible cultural heritages went on show in Kunming's Heilongtan Park at an exhibition on Feb 22 and 23 to celebrate Lantern Festival.

Art inheritors demonstrated the city's top 10 intangible culture heritages at the park, including Dongjing music, gourd carving, Sani cross-stitch and paper cutting.

Dongjing music was originally performed to promote Taoism beliefs and was commonly performed during sacrificial rites. A performance was held at the park and its smooth and melodious sound attracted hundreds of visitors.

Dongjing music.

Gourds represent prosperity, harmony and fortune in Chinese culture. Carving Chinese characters and paintings onto the gourds is a way of adding more cultural connotation to the plant. Gourd carvings have been known to be used as table lamps or to hold alcohol.

Embroidery of the Yi ethnic group in Quanlu county adopts different stitching methods than conventional ones and can be applied to anything from costumes and bags to bedding. Typical embroidery works are usually themed on traditional items such as peony, wintersweet, dragons and magpies.

Sani cross stitch.

Sani cross stitch can be traced back to Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. After generations of practice, the art became sophisticated in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It has a distinctive artistic expression and contains delightful colors, delicate patterns and full-bodied national characteristics.

Wa Mao, or Tile Cat, was very popular in Kunming about 100 years ago. Made of pottery, the staff looks like an elegant cat with a Chinese character "王" (king) on its forehead. Tile cats were put on roofs with the belief that they could frighten away ghosts and keep the house safe.

Wa Mao, or Tile Cat

Edited by Jacob Hooson