Trainees show their group assignment at a training workshop held by CRIHAP in Vanuatu. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Governing Board highly appraised the work of CRIHAP and said it believed that CRIHAP could actively carry out intangible cultural heritage capacity-building training activities in accordance with the spirit of the Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The intangible cultural heritage protection work provides intellectual support and technical assistance, which greatly promotes the development of intangible cultural heritage protection work at the national and regional levels, and assists and advances UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage capacity-building strategy in global implementation.

Zhang Aiping, Chairman of the CRIHAP Advisory Committee, hosted the seventh meeting of the Advisory Committee on Jan 13, 2020. The advisory committees made recommendations on the development of CRIHAP’s future business work and the center's long-term work goals.

As one of the seven second-class centers in the field of UNESCO's global intangible cultural heritage, CRIHAP, since its establishment, has been committed to providing the 48 countries in the Asia-Pacific region with the Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage Capacity-building training services for intangible cultural heritage under the framework. Up to December 2019, CRIHAP has held 46 intangible cultural heritage capacity- building trainings for the Asia-Pacific region, with 40 beneficiary countries.

For eight years, CRIHAP has carried out continuous and effective training activities themed "approval", "compliance", "community-based intangible cultural heritage inventory development training", "protection plan development" in East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Pacific.

Through the training from UNESCO trainers on key concepts of the Convention, the complexity of inventory development and the important role of the "community" among them, CRIHAP conveyed the concepts and methods of intangible cultural heritage protection to cultural affairs officials, community representatives, intangible cultural heritage practitioners, experts and scholars and other groups. The trainings let "on-site students" pass on what they learned through follow-up training and activities.