Shanxi's heritage takes the spotlight in Geneva

Wearing Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) clothing, Nan Yujie, a female artist from Datong, made yanggeng, as well as other snacks, and served them to guests on-site.

Judging from its Chinese characters, yanggeng often reminds people of the Japanese snack of yokan. "However, this was a popular snack some 1,600 years ago in Datong, when it served as the capital city of the Northern Wei Dynasty," Nan said. "It later spread to Japan and remains popular there."

According to Nan, in China, the yanggeng-making technique was lost several hundred years ago.

"Fortunately, the technique was recorded in such ancient books as Qi Min Yao Shu, a Northern Wei Dynasty book also known as Important Arts for the People's Welfare," Nan said. "I tried to recover this technique by referring to the books and succeeded."

Made from red bean flour, chestnut flour, sugar and other ingredients, the snack Nan made retains a distinctive Shanxi flavor, compared with the Japanese yokan.

After tasting some of the snacks, many visitors said they were happy to have a bite of the Shanxi food with a history of more than 1,600 years.

Also on display at the event were Shangdang brocade from the city of Changzhi, hand-polished lacquerware from the county of Pingyao and chengni ink slabs from the city of Yuncheng, as well as many others.

The exhibition's organizing officials said that Shanxi is renowned for its rich intangible cultural heritage resources. It now boasts 182 representative ICH items on the national list and 198 nationally recognized ICH inheritors. In addition, it hosts more than 1,000 provincial-level ICH items.

"Over the decades, we have adhered to the principle of dynamic inheritance, making the rich ICH assets an important part of people's lives," said an organizing official. "We are proud that many people are engaged in protecting and inheriting the assets, and promoting them to the world."

He added that promoting the ICH assets via marketing is crucial for dynamic inheritance. "We genuinely hope people can bring home these ICH-themed items."

This was also the case in the Geneva exhibition.