Qiang New Year

The most important channel through which Qiang New Year entered the world stage has been UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage system. Inscribed on the “Urgent Safeguarding List” in 2009 — the beginning of international attention. In 2009, at the fourth session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in the United Arab Emirates, Qiang New Year was formally approved for inclusion on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. This marked the first time Qiang New Year entered the international field of vision. UNESCO described it as “an occasion for the Qiang people to express gratitude and reverence, reaffirm a harmonious and respectful relationship with nature, and promote social and family harmony.” The crisis behind “urgent safeguarding” and the response to it. Qiang New Year’s inclusion on the Urgent Safeguarding List had a profound historical background. UNESCO noted that participation in the festival had already declined at the time, due to population migration, waning interest among younger generations in Qiang heritage, and the influence of outside cultures. The devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake destroyed countless Qiang villages, placing Qiang New Year at serious risk. Yet the disaster also awakened a stronger consciousness of cultural safeguarding. UNESCO specifically noted that, since its inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List, Qiang New Year has played a key role in “rebuilding faith and resilience” during post-disaster reconstruction. Transferred to the “Representative List” in 2024 — international recognition of safeguarding achievements. On December 5, 2024, at the 19th session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Asunción, Paraguay, Qiang New Year, together with the “traditional Li textile techniques: spinning, dyeing, weaving and embroidering” and “traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges,” was transferred from the Urgent Safeguarding List to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO noted in its evaluation that safeguarding efforts for Qiang New Year had achieved remarkable results and that its viability had continued to strengthen. Qiang New Year has “played an important role in safeguarding traditional Qiang culture and in promoting the development of local cultural ecotourism and distinctive rural tourism.” From “urgent safeguarding” to “a representative heritage of humanity”—this 15-year journey bears witness to Qiang New Year’s passage from endangerment to renewal and marks the highest level of international recognition received by Qiang culture within the global intangible cultural heritage safeguarding system.

The most direct form of Qiang New Year’s global dissemination is to “invite” the world into the Qiang villages of Aba, Sichuan, allowing international visitors to take part personally in this thousand-year-old New Year celebration. Friends from many countries gather in Wenchuan — the international contingent of Qiang New Year 2025. From November 19 to 20, 2025, a series of Qiang New Year celebrations themed “Beautiful Aba · Happy Qiang New Year” was held in Wenchuan County. This was the first Qiang New Year after the festival’s transfer from the Urgent Safeguarding List to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The festivities extended from Yingxiu Town to Weizhou Town and Miansi Town. During the “Radiant Spirit” parade on the afternoon of the 19th, Qiang participants in traditional clothing moved through the streets, displaying intangible cultural heritage elements such as Qiang embroidery and silver ornaments. The most eye-catching group in the procession was an “international contingent” made up of participants from multiple countries—international friends from New Zealand, Melbourne, Thailand, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, and elsewhere joined the parade in festive dress and celebrated together with local Qiang residents and visitors of different ethnic groups. This cultural encounter across national borders not only brought Qiang New Year culture closer to the world, but also created a bridge for civilizational dialogue based on “each appreciating its own beauty, and all sharing beauty together” (各美其美、美美与共). International arts groups perform together. During the 2025 Wenchuan Qiang New Year celebrations, performance groups from eight Qiang-inhabited areas of Sichuan appeared together with five international arts troupes, including the Trenčín Folk Dance Ensemble from Slovakia and Thailand’s “Thai Perfect” Traditional Dance Arts Troupe. Artistic elements from different peoples and regions met and mingled here—combining the passionate exuberance of Qiang performers with the varied charms of song and dance from abroad. Thailand’s “Thai Perfect” Traditional Performing Arts Troupe was invited to participate in the Qiang New Year celebrations, allowing traditional Thai arts and Chinese intangible cultural heritage to meet on the same stage and spark cultural exchange. Immersive experience — allowing the world to touch Qiang culture. The 2025 Qiang New Year celebrations centered on “living transmission + immersive experience + international interaction.” Visitors could witness the solemn blessing rituals of the Shibi (释比), traditional Qiang ritual specialists, listen firsthand to the sounds of the Qiang flute and the ethereal harmonies of Qiang polyphonic folk songs, and personally join in folk interactions such as the bonfire Shalang dance and zajiu tasting. At the large open-air “paotang feast” (吃刨汤) for a thousand people, visitors from across the country and Qiang residents gathered together, tasted distinctive Qiang foods, and raised their cups to welcome the Qiang Calendar New Year. Yingxiu’s streets also featured a living intangible cultural heritage experience area. From a “disaster zone” to a “cultural destination” — Wenchuan’s international transformation. The 2008 earthquake made Wenchuan a focus of world attention. Seventeen years later, Wenchuan was using Qiang New Year, now on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as a cultural calling card to attract arts groups and visitors from countries around the world. As local media in Wenchuan put it, Qiang New Year “uses the festival as a medium to transmit the roots of intangible heritage and song as a bridge for cultural exchange, allowing this traditional celebration inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to blossom in the new era with a distinctive charm that crosses mountains and seas.”

The international dissemination of Qiang New Year is reflected not only in “inviting the world in,” but also in overseas arts groups actively learning from and re-creating Qiang culture. Thailand’s “Thai Perfect” arts troupe and its journey through Chinese intangible heritage. In November 2025, at the invitation of Wenchuan’s culture and tourism authorities, Thailand’s “Thai Perfect” Traditional Performing Arts Troupe traveled to Wenchuan County to participate in the Qiang New Year celebrations. Traditional Thai arts met Chinese intangible cultural heritage on the Qiang New Year stage, generating sparks of cultural exchange. Chaoshan Yingge dance, Zhejiang Baiye Dragon, Inner Mongolian Ulan Muqir — cultural resonance from across China. The 2025 Qiang New Year parade included not only traditional Qiang performances, but also intangible cultural heritage teams from around China. The drumbeats of Chaoshan Yingge dance thundered through the streets; Zhejiang’s Baiye Dragon rolled through the wind with poetic grace; and the songs of Inner Mongolia’s Ulan Muqir carried the vastness of the grasslands. The entire street became a moving cultural theater. This gathering of intangible cultural heritage traditions from across China at Qiang New Year has made the festival not only a Qiang celebration, but also a platform for the concentrated presentation of China’s diverse ethnic cultures. Participation by international arts groups. Performance teams from Mexico and other countries also joined the Qiang New Year celebrations. Qiang New Year is becoming an important platform for international folk-art exchange, attracting growing numbers of cultural groups from around the world.

Documentary film constitutes another important channel through which Qiang New Year has reached the world. Above the Clouds — the first Chinese documentary to win a UK TVE film award. In 2024, at the 13th UK TVE Global Sustainability Film Awards, the Qiang cultural documentary Above the Clouds (《云朵之上》), produced and written by Wang Qinjia, a young member of the overseas Qiang community from Beichuan, received the Special Jury Award. It was the first Chinese documentary in the history of the awards to be selected and to win a prize. The documentary takes the ancient traditional culture of the Qiang people and the spirit of cultural transmission as its narrative background. Through a distinctive perspective on local customs, it explores in depth the harmonious relationship between the Qiang people and nature, expressing their respect for and dependence on mountains, forests, rivers, and other natural elements. The story unfolds against the background of the devastating natural disaster of 2008. Above the Clouds appeared at the awards ceremony in London, competing among nearly a thousand films from more than a hundred countries worldwide. From the Qiang mountains of Beichuan to the awards stage in London, Above the Clouds enabled the world to discover Qiang New Year and Qiang culture through moving images. Our Shared Festivals — telling the ethnic story of Qiang New Year. The Sichuan-produced micro-documentary series Our Shared Festivals (《我们共同的节日》), created to transmit and promote outstanding traditional Chinese culture, tells vivid and moving stories from traditional celebrations including the Torch Festival, Qiang New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tibetan New Year, and Spring Festival. The series was named one of the ten outstanding works in the micro-documentary category at the 31st China Documentary Academic Awards. Inspiration China — international communication for Generation Z. The international video program Inspiration China (《灵感中国 Inspiration》), produced by Sichuan Daily Press Group, is aimed at Generation Z audiences in China and overseas and explores cultural calling cards of China such as ancient Shu civilization for global viewers. The series has released features including What Is Qiang New Year?, introducing Qiang New Year culture to international audiences through a younger and more contemporary style of expression.