Heritage hits the tracks

For 18 days in July, a purple-painted train traveled from Jinan, East China's Shandong province, to the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, turning its carriages into a moving exhibition, workshop and stage for traditional arts.

Passengers watched live folk performances, tried their hand at Chinese knots, and encountered traditional opera close up.

"It was quite different from performing on a conventional stage," says Meng Yue, a native Shandong Lyu Opera performer who was on the train. The narrow aisles and swaying carriage required the performer to adjust her movements.

"But the passenger interactions at such close range are something you simply cannot replicate in a theater," she adds.

The organizers say this is the first interprovincial intangible cultural heritage-themed train traveling to Xinjiang. It departed from Jinan on July 14 and returned on July 31.

During the journey, more than 40 exhibitions, performances and exchange activities were held, drawing more than 20,000 participants and generating more than 11.7 million yuan ($1.75 million) in associated consumer spending, according to Jiang Shiqiu, deputy director of the intangible cultural heritage division of the Shandong provincial culture and tourism department.

Jiang says two heritage items on display proved especially popular with passengers: incense sachets from Shandong and enamel-painted fridge magnets from Xinjiang.

Passengers were particularly drawn by the fragrance of the incense sachets, Jiang notes.

For the 13 intangible cultural heritage practitioners from Shandong on board, however, the journey offered more than a new venue for performances and demonstrations. It also created an opportunity to meet practitioners from Xinjiang and explore ways to cooperate.

The train traveled to multiple destinations in Xinjiang, including Hami prefecture, the Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture and Kashgar, where Shandong practitioners met local inheritors for exchanges and joint performances. In Kashgar, when the melody of the traditional Uygur music and dance form Dolan Muqam, a national-level intangible cultural heritage, began, practitioners from the two regions spontaneously joined hands and danced.

For passengers, traditional culture became something to experience without leaving their train seats during an ordinary journey, rather than visiting a museum or performance venue.

Jiang observes that the mobile format allowed heritage to reach people who might never have visited a cultural exhibition, breaking down the barriers between tradition and everyday life.

He says that the project explored four ways to put intangible cultural heritage to work: fostering exchanges between Shandong and Xinjiang, creating new cultural experiences for passengers, showcasing the results of Shandong's support for Xinjiang's heritage programs, and finding new uses for traditional cultural resources.

The train also incorporated heritage elements from both regions into its design. Its purple exterior features the theme "From Mount Tai to Tianshan", a reference to Shandong's sacred mountain and Xinjiang's towering mountain range. The train's interior was divided into functional zones: a heritage products area, a performance space, an interactive experience zone, and a display area showcasing Shandong's heritage assistance projects in Xinjiang.

Jiang says Shandong plans to continue exploring the "heritage plus train" model following this journey, including ways to develop a more regular operating mechanism.

"We want heritage to step out of exhibition halls and reach the public," he says.