Xu Niansha Visits Yuan Jiaqi Art Museum for Research, Emphasizing the Core Role of Handcraftsmanship

On April 19, Xu Niansha, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the China Machinery Industry Federation, as well as President of the China Arts and Crafts Association, visited Ningbo to study the preservation and development of the arts and crafts sector. He visited the Yuan Jiaqi Art Museum for an on-site inspection and held a discussion with Yuan Jiaqi, a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts and a National Representative Inheritor of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Xu Niansha emphasized that we must strengthen cultural confidence, uphold openness and inclusiveness, uphold fundamental principles while promoting innovation, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's fine traditional culture, uphold the central role of handcraftsmanship in the digital economy era, better fulfill the cultural mission of the new era, and make positive contributions to building China into a country with a strong socialist culture and modern Chinese civilization.

During the visit, Xu Niansha viewed the exhibition of jade carvings at the art gallery and listened to Yuan Jiaqi's introduction to the creative concepts behind his representative works. He gained a detailed understanding of the inheritance of jade carving techniques, talent cultivation, and market development. He fully affirmed Yuan Jiaqi's practice of grounding himself in tradition, devoting himself to creation, and cultivating successors.

Xu Niansha pointed out that arts and crafts are an integral part of China's outstanding traditional culture, embodying the Chinese nation's intellectual wisdom, spiritual pursuits, and aesthetic sensibilities. Handcrafted works carry unique humanistic value and a sense of warmth, and they retain irreplaceable cultural and market value even in the era of the digital economy. We must properly balance the relationship between inheritance and innovation, as well as between manual craftsmanship and intelligent technology. In the initial processing stages, we should reasonably apply automation technology to improve production efficiency. In the core creative stages, we must uphold the fundamental status of manual craftsmanship to achieve "synergy between human and technology," where both complement each other. We must prioritize the use of digital technology to establish a database of traditional craft archives, preserving the memory of endangered techniques and preventing a cultural generational gap. Artificial intelligence should be utilized to assist in the research and innovation of traditional patterns, providing a reference for creation. However, the cultural heritage, artistic intuition, and creative spirit of master artisans remain irreplaceable. Technology is ultimately a means; human creativity is the end goal. Only by upholding the central role of handcrafted production can we build the future of arts and crafts in the digital economy era.

The Yuan Jiaqi Art Museum opened on Meishan Island in Beilun District, Ningbo, in 2020. Since its opening six years ago, Yuan Jiaqi has actively promoted the innovation and inheritance of jade carving culture. He has partnered with relevant academic institutions to establish jade carving training bases and leveraged the policy advantages of the Meishan Free Trade Zone to expand international cultural exchange and cooperation.

In February of this year, Xu Niansha attended the Second International Craft Forum and delivered a keynote speech, proposing the view that "digital technology should serve to preserve memory, not replace craftsmanship," which generated a positive response within the international crafts community.

(Reporter: Hong Bin)