Mixing crafts on new ground

Under the stage lights in Shihezi, a leather shadow puppet slowly raises an arm, swaying gracefully to the rhythm of melodies unique to the city in northern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Its movements are inspired by a traditional dance of the Uygur ethnic group. The music comes from local performers playing classic Uygur instruments such as the dutar and rawap. Yet, the figure dancing behind the screen belonged to Beijing's centuries-old shadow puppet tradition.

For the performers, it was an opportunity to explore how intangible cultural heritage can travel across regions, connect with new traditions and continue to evolve.

The performance was created for the 2026 Xinjiang Is a Nice Place intangible cultural heritage showcase, which opened on Thursday.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Xinjiang government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the five-day event brought together more than 650 representative intangible cultural heritage practices and over 540 inheritors from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Rather than simply showcasing traditions from different regions, the event highlighted exchanges and cooperation, encouraging artists and craftspeople to learn from one another and create new forms of expression.

For Lu Baogang, an actor with the Beijing shadow puppet troupe, adapting the performance for Xinjiang audiences became the troupe's first challenge.

"When we received the invitation, we were honestly a little nervous," Lu says. "We kept asking ourselves what kind of program Xinjiang audiences would connect with."

Instead of bringing an existing production, the troupe chose to weave local cultural elements into a brand-new performance.

The result was a short piece inspired by the story of Wan Tongshu, a cultural worker who contributed to the preservation of Twelve Muqam — a traditional Uygur musical suite inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

The Beijing artists created two shadow puppet figures based on Wan and his wife, paying tribute to generations of cultural workers who dedicated themselves to safeguarding Xinjiang's rich musical heritage.