BMW Brilliance shines with cultural product offering and social responsibility

BMW Brilliance Automotive exhibited imaginative and exciting cultural handicraft products from Qinghai, Sichuan, Hunan, Henan and other areas, in the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University from Nov 30 to Dec 1, outlining the automaker's achievements in protecting intangible culture heritage and undertaking its corporate social responsibility.

The exhibition marked the finale of this year's successful BMW China Culture Journey series of innovative programs, one of the iconic corporate social responsibility programs launched by BMW Brilliance Automotive, the joint venture between German automobile giant BMW and Chinese automaker Brilliance Auto.

"The BMW China Culture Journey has transformed intangible culture heritage into commercial products in an innovative CSR way this year," said Johann Wieland, president and CEO of BMW Brilliance Automotive at the opening ceremony.

"This is part of BMW Brilliance's efforts to support the country's policy of alleviating poverty with cultural means and interprets the concept of BMW strategic corporate social responsibility," Wieland added.

Collaborating with Shokay - a socially responsible enterprise producing high-quality sustainable fashion and other products with yak wool - and local herdsman cooperatives in Yushu, the BMW China Culture Journey has launched a series of products called Yushu Impressions.

Ranging from fashionable household items to clothing for the 2019 spring season, the products include woven scarves, clothes and blankets as well as handmade hats and key chains.

All these products are made from yak wool, bought from local herdsmen in Yushu.

Customers can buy these products on BMW's official e-commerce platforms on Tmall and JD - the top Chinese e-commerce portals.

"We provide the sales channels for the products, but do not make any profit from it," said Yang Meihong, vice-president at BMW Brilliance Automotive.

SHOKAY is scheduled to hold commercial mode training lessons to the herdsman cooperatives in Yushu, aiming to alleviate the local poverty in a sustainable way, Yang added.

"This is a multi-win action to enable all the parties involved to develop in the long term and in a stable way," Yang noted.

Accompanying the exhibition at Tsinghua University, the BMW China Culture Journey partners with the SDX Joint Publishing Company to create the intangible cultural heritage pop-up showroom at Sanlitun from Nov 29 to Dec 1.

Located at Sanlitun - the landmark commercial area in downtown Beijing - the showrooms exhibited creative products from the intangible culture heritage of Qinghai, Sichuan, Hunan and Shaanxi provinces, which strive to integrate their intangible culture heritage into modern life and stimulate young people's awareness about preserving intangible culture heritage.

While viewing the showrooms, visitors were also able to buy the creative products through e-commerce platforms and get their products within a few days.

As another part of its efforts to promote intangible culture heritage, especially in innovative and imaginative ways, BMW Brilliance released its latest tour guide - BMW China Culture Journey Tour Guide in Yushu on Nov 30.

The tour guide - which features abundant pictures and vivid narrations - allows readers to get familiar with Yushu in terms of its diverse intangible culture heritage, magnificent natural scenery and distinct plateau landscapes.

Offering an online guide for self-driving tours on Chinese travel website Mafengwo, the tour guide is expected to promote the development of Yushu's tourism, so as to give support to poverty relief in this district.

The BMW China Culture Journey Tour Guide in Yushu is the third consecutive guide launched by the automaker, following the BMW China Culture Journey Tour Guide in Sichuan in 2016 and the BMW China Culture Journey Tour Guide in Hunan in 2017.