On June 12, Pan’an held a series of cultural and natural heritage activities amid the launching ceremony of the Cultural Benefit Project to showcase the results of the county’s intangible cultural heritage protection project. As a significant county for intangible cultural heritage, Pan’an has 710 key intangible cultural heritages on the census list. The Cultural Benefit Project will focus on launching a series of Pan’an classic cultural promotion and display exhibitions, as well as a series of cultural activities such as “100 cultural and sports competitions,” “1,000 training sessions in the community,” and “10,000 books sent to the grass roots organizations.”

In the “Notice on Promulgating the Fifth Batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Project Lists” issued by the State Council, Pan’an Fire Stamping (lian huo) and Flag Dancing (ying daqi) ceremonies were selected, which makes Pan’an rank first among all counties and cities in Zhejiang for number of national-level intangible heritage items. With the earlier selected local “Tea Market” Temple Fair (gan chachang), Pan’an now has three national-level intangible cultural heritage preservation projects. (Translated by Jiang Yifan, edited by Kendra Fiddler)

Ying Daqi—Flag dancing ceremony