THE intangible heritage training center has helped promote Qingdao’s culture and passed on skills to the younger generation that might otherwise have been lost.

The city’s first intangible heritage training center was opened at the residents’ art gallery in June last year. The big lecture hall has then become a classroom for residents to learn about traditional skills and arts, such as paper cutting, embroidery, Chinese opera, traditional dancing and painting.

Liang Jinhua, 67, a master of Jiaodong drum, brought the class to Beijing Road Primary School on Nov. 8. She taught students how to sing in time with the drum. She found some exceptionally talented students. “Teaching at school is great. Not only can you promote something you care about, you can also find the talent that could bring it into the next generation,” Liang said.

 Liang has more than 10 regular students, but she wants more, according to Zhang Ping, an official from the center, “She contacted the art school of Qingdao University this spring and set up a teaching center there,” said Zhang.

Some traditional technical skills are being promoted in the city through industrialization. The “Da’ou birdcage” is one of the successful cases.

In Da’ou village, nearly all of the approximately 500 families know how to make a traditional birdcage. The traditional technique can be traced back 500 years. “Da’ou birdcage” is famous for its special design, complicated production process and good quality. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), they were made for royal families.

Three masters, including Wu Xiangjun, Wu Xiangping and Wu Xiangqi, founded a birdcage production association to help villagers make birdcages several years ago. With their organizations, different families are now in charge of different processes and a complete industrial chain from production, packaging to sales is formed in the village. Their products are now sold in more than 30 cities in China and other countries and regions such as the United States, France, Japan and Singapore, earning more than 30 million yuan a year.

Similar successful cases include straw products in Pingdu, cloth tiger in Jiaozhou and bottled gourd sculptures in Paixi.

(Wang Yuanyuan, Qing Bao)