A workshop on the ratification and implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was held in Chengdu on April 15-22, 2014. The workshop was hosted by the International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP), and undertaken by the Chengdu Bureau of Culture and Chengdu Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center. CRIHAP director Yang Zhi, Chengdu Culture Minister Wang Jin and Akatsuki Takahashi, executive officer in charge of cultural affairs at the UNESCO Office in Pacific Regional attended the workshop’s opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

Two UNESCO-accredited facilitators, Suzanne Ogge and Anthony Parak, were invited to the workshop as instructors. They gave lectures on related knowledge of the ratification and implementation of the Convention to the officers in charge of intangible cultural heritage protection from the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Cambodia. Zhou Xiaopu, deputy director of the National Intangible Culture Heritage Protection Experts Committee, Lan Jing, deputy director of China Art Science and Technology Institute and Professor Jiang Yuxiang and Li Xianglin from Sichuan University were also invited to the workshop to share their experience on safeguarding China’s intangible cultural heritage with workshop participants.

Apart from 12 sessions of lectures and interactive discussions, the workshop also included field trips to view examples of intangible cultural heritage, such as Xinfan Zongbian, or palm fiber weaving, from Xinbian town of Sichuan province and the Sichuan Opera. By sharing ideas with inheritors of these items, the participants improved their abilities of taking measures to protect intangible cultural heritage.