Local government prepares protection program

On Wednesday, an expert panel formed by the provincial government began a field study in Sunan Yugur autonomous county, Gansu province. Their aim is to lay the ground for the establishment of a reserve dedicated to the culture of the Yugur ethnic group.

Local media reported that the experts had toured areas that focus on the protection and inheritance of the ethnic group's intangible cultural heritage, songs and dances and traditional clothing, and had also visited a Yugur museum to evaluate the group's cultural status.

The Yugur mainly live in Sunan, Zhangye city, which lies in the foothills of the Qilian Mountains in the northwestern province.

The group has no written script, but its spoken language was listed as "an endangered minority language" by the central government in 2010. Meanwhile, its folk songs, costumes and wedding customs were included in the national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively, according to the Zhangye media.

Last year saw the Sunan premiere of Ximao's Wedding, a government-made documentary that depicts Yugur customs.

In recent years, the county government has spread ethnic culture to schools by compiling teaching materials, offering courses on native folk songs and oral language and holding classes to cultivate young people's understanding of traditional Yugur culture.

At a meeting of the 12th Gansu Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference last year, Yang Haiyan, a committee member and an acknowledged inheritor of Yugur culture, noted that Sunan is rich in intangible cultural resources, but it lacks the funds and talent to ensure their protection.

"We are faced with challenges including aging inheritors, a backward infrastructure and lagging innovation and development. To better protect our inheritance, we must first solve the funding problem. When our culture is not seen in purely financial terms, it is difficult to protect it," she told the conference.

As the ethnic group comprises only about 10,000 people in Gansu, Yang called for more attention to be paid to living standards and protection of their inheritance, and she asked for more policy support.

In 2019, the 45-year-old, who owns a company that makes traditional Yugur clothing, joined a pilot poverty alleviation program launched by the provincial government.

Her company trained about 6,000 people and hired local residents from impoverished households to make traditional costumes, handicrafts and other products.

Innovation is crucial, she said, so she focuses on the integration of culture and tourism to attract young people and help them learn about Yugur artifacts and clothing.

In 2019, Yang and her team brought Yugur culture to Sunan's kindergartens, primary, middle and vocational high schools.

"We wore our traditional costumes, showed off our customs and sang folk songs. We taught the students to make traditional artifacts. Through these tangible objects, we can stimulate their interest. The feedback from the students was positive. We will expand our efforts to other places, so more students will learn about Yugur culture and inherit and cherish it," she said.