Creative handicrafts of the nations along the “Belt and Road”
By Zhu Jingning
To showcase the cultural heritages of the nations along the "Belt and Road" and to promote the multi-cultural handicrafts from the Silk Road, the annual "Belt and Road" Ingenuity Cultural and Creative Achievements Exhibition has been part of the Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Expo for six successive years.
This year, it will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiatives, featuring hand-made art pieces from over 20 countries and regions worldwide. By implementing the philosophy of "viewing, touring and shopping," the exhibition aims to stage a grand gala highlighting the manual craftsmanship.
The exhibition area is divided into four zones under the themes of Ingenuity Retrospect, Bulgarian Specialty, International Art Projects and Global Inspiration Handicraft Streets.
Bulgaria, known as the "Kingdom of Roses", is not only a place with the European and Asian cultures, but also the birthplace of Thracian civilization, where many civilizations and religions co-existed. The traditional crafts from the Plovdiv Folk Museum's repository will be displayed in China for the first time during the exhibition. The Bulgarian traditional puppet craftsmen will also demonstrate doll costume making on site.
In the exhibition area of International Art Projects, you can also flash back to Andersen's fairy land or witness Voltaire's enlightenment revolution among the manuscripts and letters of literature masters and Nobel Prize winners including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Romain Rolland, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to name just a few. In addition, the Chinese artist Yuan Zeming collaborated with the Hungarian artist Ferenc Kö in the creation of a series of distinctive and painted gorillas, presenting a unique fusion of arts inspired by a Utopian planet.