Continuously Enable Inheritors through Innovative Approaches and Build New Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Ecosystem
2020 BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Opens in Shenyang

Shenyang, Liaoning, Oct. 23rd - Today, the 2020 BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition, held in collaboration with the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding and BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., opens in Shenyang. Earlier in September, the BMW China Culture Journey had experienced more than 30 tangible and intangible cultural heritages in Liaoning in-depth. This exhibition is a condensed version of the tour and continues to contribute to the development of Liaoning's cultural tourism industry.

At the exhibition, the 2020 BMW China Culture Journey released a series of the Liaoning tour’s social achievements, including the selection of 6 intangible cultural heritage inheritors from Liaoning Province and Hubei Province to co-design creative products in the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center, the collaboration with Alibaba Foundation under the Model Mother Program to further enable female intangible cultural heritage inheritors with e-commerce skills, and the official launch of the “BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Culture Heritage Tour Guides of Liaoning”.

Meanwhile, more than 40 inheritors from Liaoning have been invited to attend the Exhibition’s Liaoning Intangible Cultural Heritage Creative Fair to showcase and sell 20 different types of Liaoning intangible cultural heritage products. The fair aims to share the beauty of Liaoning with a wider public to help promote Liaoning’s intangible cultural heritage protection as well as the revitalization and development of Liaoning’s cultural tourism industry.

Dr. Johann Wieland, President and CEO of BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., said: “Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, BMW Brilliance Automotive sees economic outcomes and social deliverables as equally important. Thanks to the governments and our stakeholders’ supports, we can deliver on both. We believe that for a company to grow from Good to Great, it must look beyond sales performance and profitability. A Great company should also be a responsible company, engaging with society and creating shared value. When society is in hardship, Corporate Social Responsibility will help to create a win-win situation. This year, we pay more attention to our connection with the whole society and BMW China Culture Journey shows exactly that. It not only interprets our strong commitment to local communities, but also demonstrates our support to social and economic recovery, and the cultural tourism’s industry development.”

The 2020 BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition at Shenyang Palace Museum is free and open to the public from October 23rd to 24th. The exhibition features not only Liaoning intangible cultural heritage boutiques, but also the debut of the first batch of intangible cultural heritage creative products from the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center. In 2016, BMW co-founded the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding with Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts and Design, launching the “teaching a man how to fish” inheritor enabling model. The intangible cultural heritage exhibits are the first batch of co-designed achievements since the upgrade of Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center. This launch shows the integration of intangible cultural heritage into modern life—a combination of traditional and contemporary, and a successful example of the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture. Learning from the collaboration concept and innovation model of the development of the first batch of intangible cultural heritage creative products, six inheritors from Liaoning Province and Hubei Province have also been selected to join the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center to co-design market-oriented intangible culture-themed creative products following the Liaoning visit. Their handiworks are scheduled for public release in 2021.

In addition, the BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Culture Heritage Tour Guide of Liaoning developed by the 2020 BMW China Culture Journey and the online travel platform Mafengwo has also been officially launched today. By integrating intangible cultural heritage and tourism, it will also continue to contribute to the development of Liaoning's cultural tourism industry. Meanwhile, taking into account insights into changing travel habits in the post-epidemic era, two BMW China Culture Journey Regional Mini-Tour Guides customized for different regions in China were launched on the Mafengwo platform in August this year, attracting more than 100 thousand public views so far.

On top of that, based on the creative enabling foundation provided by the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center, the 2020 BMW China Culture Journey collaborated with Alibaba Foundation under the Model Mother program to enable female inheritors with e-commerce skills, promote their employment or entrepreneurship in e-commerce, and realize the closed-loop supply chain from design to consumption to achieve economic and social benefits that will contribute to intangible cultural heritage protection and further its sustainable development. At present, select intangible cultural heritage products such as Miao silver jewelry have already been released on the official “Model Mother” online charity shop and has achieved sales breakthrough on the 2020 BMW Culture Journey Taobao’s live streaming event.

Please scan the QR code below for the full version of the BMW China Culture Journey Intangible Culture Heritage Tour Guide of Liaoning, or follow BMW Corporate Social Responsibility’s WeChat account for more information:

Mafengwo Official Webpage of
BMW China Culture Journey

BMW Corporate Social Responsibility’s WeChat Account