"Knock, knock, knock!" At 9 a.m. at the entrance to China's Ancient Qiang City in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, the sound of sheepskin drums was deafening. The massive city gate slowly opened, and hundreds of feet of vibrant red Qiang banners hung down from the watchtower. Dressed in traditional attire, the local Qiang people stepped out singing and dancing, drawing crowds of tourists who stopped to admire the scene.
Since opening in 2013, this 4A scenic area, centered on Qiang culture, has been staging a daily opening ceremony. Programs such as the sheepskin drum dance, Salang, and polyphonic folk songs create a model featuring "intangible cultural heritage practitioners performing on-site, local Qiang residents participating, and visitors engaging in deep experiences," earning warm reception from tourists.
Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture is China's only prefecture dedicated to the Tibetan and Qiang ethnic groups. Home to a diverse community of Tibetans, Qiang, Hui, and Han people, it boasts a comprehensive intangible cultural heritage (ICH) system spanning ten categories, including folk customs, traditional crafts, and traditional music. In recent years, Aba has continuously explored unique models for ICH protection and inheritance, promoting living transmission and innovative transformation of its cultural heritage.
The Qiang flute, a cultural cornerstone of the Qiang ethnic group with over 2,000 years of history, has long faced challenges in its preservation and development due to its narrow range and difficulty in pitch control. Zhao Kun, an intangible cultural heritage inheritor dedicated to the performance and craftsmanship of the Qiang flute, continues to explore how best to ensure its legacy in the modern era.
"Innovation rooted in integrity means creating works that resonate with today's youth and reach a wider audience while preserving the essence," says Zhao Kun. He has implemented multi-dimensional improvements to the Qiang flute: incorporating Qiang water-polished lacquer art into its craftsmanship, composing new pieces with slower tempos to lower the learning threshold for young people, and using new materials to address pain points such as complex double-reed tuning and sound loss when reeds get wet. Today, more young people are eager to learn and play the instrument with confidence.
Rangtang County in Aba Prefecture boasts over 120 intangible cultural heritage resources, yet long-term development has been hindered by the region's high mountains and deep valleys. To address this, local leaders adopted a "One Park + N Workshops + Enclave" model: establishing the Rangbala Intangible Cultural Heritage Learning and Entrepreneurship Park locally, along with dozens of learning workshops. Meanwhile, "enclaves" were set up in major cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Jingdezhen, enabling youth from pastoral areas to master skills such as traditional Chinese painting, Ouzhou plastic arts, and porcelain painting—skills they then bring back to enrich local heritage creation.
"They come from farming and herding families, but now they are all skilled artisans with stable incomes," said Sangzhou, director of the Rang'ba Non-Intangible Cultural Heritage Learning and Entrepreneurship Park. Currently, the county's non-intangible cultural heritage industry directly supports stable employment for over 500 people and enables more than 3000 farmers and herders to work locally and increase their income. On average, each person has seen an annual income increase of over 4000 yuan. Beyond that, the area is collaborating with the Palace Museum on Thangka replication and R&D, partnering with Shanghai Animation Film Studio to produce animated Thangka works, and seeing strong sales of cultural creative products such as Tibetan pottery, incense, and herbal bath cosmetics both within and outside the province.
To date, Aba Prefecture has cultivated 6 non-heritage enterprises with an annual output value exceeding 500 yuan and 35 enterprises with an annual output value exceeding 100 yuan, creating nearly 10,000 jobs in total.