As June arrived, several of my friends from out of town came to Hong Kong. As soon as they entered the airport terminal, they were drawn in by the aroma of tea. A demonstration of Hong Kong-style milk tea making techniques was underway. The master craftsman skillfully poured tea back and forth in mid-air, from the patient preparation of brewing and steeping the tea to the rhythmic and precise pouring of tea and milk. The high and low movements, full of tension, made the group of travelers stop and savor this part of Hong Kong's lifestyle and culture.
Festival promotions are stripped of their connection to daily life.
June marks "National Cultural and Natural Heritage Day," with over 7,000 cultural and museum activities taking place across the country, and the second "Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Month" is also in full swing. A key event, the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Summit," themed "Shared Origins and Shared Flow," brings together representatives from the Greater Bay Area and the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area to discuss local innovation, raising public awareness of cultural heritage preservation to new heights. However, as the month-long festival concludes, beyond the bustling venues, Hong Kong's intangible cultural heritage policies often lack a solid foundation for implementation and sustained vitality.
This year's promotional theme, "Intangible Cultural Heritage Makes Life Better!", succinctly points out that the key to cultural inheritance lies in integrating into people's daily lives and creating authentic experiential scenarios. Unfortunately, promotional efforts in Hong Kong often degenerate into festival-style "special" projects, inevitably losing their appeal once the event ends. Some activities even exhibit a paternalistic curatorial mindset, rigidly confining rich folk crafts within display boards and glass cases. This one-way indoctrination often prioritizes meeting administrative performance targets for "promotion and education," neglecting the essential market appeal and interactivity required for traditional culture. Ultimately, it turns citizens into mere passersby, failing to generate deep emotional resonance.
Touching the surface without actually contributing to cultural accumulation
The government previously held a "Intangible Cultural Heritage Food Carnival" on Oil Street, aiming to introduce the public to intangible cultural heritage techniques related to food. The authorities' ability to utilize public art spaces to create experiential scenarios and the event design catering to the needs of families for weekend entertainment are commendable. However, this grand event lasted only two days. After the two days of excitement, the valuable promotional opportunities were instantly lost, failing to become long-term cultural capital for the community. This superficial promotional model reflects the governing team's neglect of the long-term environment needed for cultural preservation and cultivation. True intangible cultural heritage should not be confined to concentrated promotional materials in specific months, but must be a tangible and accessible element of daily life.
Hong Kong's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage already includes items deeply rooted in daily life, such as food bowls, herbal tea, and Hong Kong-style milk tea. Instead of wasting resources on fleeting exhibitions, the government should take a top-down approach to branding the intangible cultural heritage list, establishing a systematic and continuously operating "Community Intangible Cultural Heritage Labelling Scheme." The authorities could allow businesses meeting established traditional production standards to apply, and after professional review, display prominent official labels in their shops. Seamlessly weaving intangible cultural heritage elements into the community, allowing citizens to encounter these treasures in every corner of the streets, is the true way to make intangible cultural heritage a part of life.
Embracing Chinese trends and promoting local innovation
Globally, intangible cultural heritage has long transcended static artifact displays, transforming into a national trend industry with immense economic value. Since the end of 2025, Generation Z in Europe and America has sparked a "Chinamaxxing" phenomenon, with a massive number of young online influencers vying to record their "Chinese moments" on short video platforms, attempting to replicate herbal tea and practice the Eight-Section Brocade exercise. A well-known blogger from Hengyang, Hunan, has documented techniques such as iron flower making, fish lantern making, and ice dragon carving, with the most popular iron flower video even exceeding 300 million views, mostly from overseas audiences.
This powerful online reach is translating into tangible offline consumer spending. According to the "2025 Douyin Intangible Cultural Heritage Data Report," the number of offline merchants related to intangible cultural heritage in mainland China increased by a staggering 1871 TP3T in the past year, while group-buying orders for related products climbed by 1731 TP3T. The rapid market expansion of intangible cultural heritage products not only represents the cross-regional charm of Chinese culture but also its ability to resonate across generations. The mainland industry has long recognized this trend, focusing its designs on supporting the younger generation in finding emotional resonance.
Policy-driven breakthroughs in curatorial inertia
Taking the "Deep Mountain Dolls," derived from Guizhou village embroidery, as an example, the design team not only compiled over 8,900 ethnic aesthetic patterns and collaborated with top designers, but also capitalized on the wave of artificial intelligence to evolve them into "talking dolls." Based on the core spirit of the Miao people, such as the animism of all things, the products can interact with consumers and respond emotionally. Meanwhile, Zhejiang Province launched the "Intangible Cultural Heritage + AI/AR Innovation Case Collection Plan," actively encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration between traditional inheritors and video creators, making good use of museum collections to develop storybooks and digital artifacts. These innovative measures fully demonstrate the enduring appeal of intangible cultural heritage.
In contrast, Hong Kong, facing the unstoppable wave of cultural industrialization, must break free from its inertia of prioritizing curation over transformation. Hong Kong has never lacked a rich cultural heritage; from the everyday wisdom of folk riddles and fishermen's rhymes to the craftsmanship of traditional Chinese long gowns and brush-making, these are all highly promising calling cards for the city. The government should take the lead in proactively planning forward-looking "Intangible Cultural Heritage+" investment programs, using dedicated funds to facilitate cross-sector collaborations between technology companies, young creative designers, and traditional inheritors. Only by actively introducing grassroots creativity and transforming local cultural treasures into commercially valuable and sustainable industrial chains can we avoid being completely marginalized in this massive wave of cultural innovation.
[Hong Kong 01]:https://www.hk01.com/article/60362994?utm_source=01articlecopy&utm_medium=referral
