A huge gap in the ecosystem is that despite the important roles the Chinese clan associations play in Singapore’s nation-building and promotion of cultural understanding, many younger generation Singaporean are not aware of their existence, much less their relevance. According to the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations in 2017, “more than half of the clan associations are in danger of fading away, if they do not actively attract younger members”. This project addresses this important gap by creating ground-up initiatives which could spur interest amongst the public and actively engage the youth to continue the lifeline of Chinese clan associations. Moreover, the aged clan members are living treasure troves to our past. However, there hasn’t been sufficient projects that tap into their knowledge about our less-known food history, traditions, and customs. This project serves as a stepping stone to spark conversations and ignite interest in uncovering more about our rich Singaporean food heritage before they are lost in the time.\n\nHaving spent more than half her life with clan associations, Lynn Wong is passionate about uncovering and sharing the lesser-known Singaporean Chinese clan heritage with the youth. She is the project director of Ho Yeah Festival (the first-ever Cantonese and Hakka festival in Singapore), as well as the recipient of the inaugural Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations (SFCCA) Outstanding Youth Award in 2017.\n\nTexts\n\nQingming Festival is a time for ancestor veneration and tomb sweeping. There is a popular saying, “Of all virtues, filial piety comes first.” Ancestor veneration is an important Chinese tradition. During Qingming Festival, descendants will make ancestral offerings to express their love and gratitude. Our Singapore Hakka forefathers from the Wui Chiu Prefecture have a must-have Qingming traditional snack – the Mugwort Kueh. Families coming together to wrap Mugwort Kueh is a more than 1000-year-old tradition of the Wui Chiu people. The mugwort leaf is said to be a miracle herb that can cure all kinds of diseases.

Spring Rain is an original dance based on the Shuixiu dance, a traditional dance of the Zang people which has become a representative form of Chinese classical dance. It expresses the rain falling in spring and beautiful natural landscapes in elegant movements.\n\nShuixiu dance is a ‘long sleeved dance’ performed while wearing clothes with long flowing sleeves. It is characterized by the flinging and catching of the long sleeves. The essence of Shuixiu dance lies in its harmonious and beautiful curves. It represents the aesthetic character of Shuixiu while keeping with the unique philosophy and temperament of the Zangs, which seeks harmony, peace, coexistence and concordance.\n\nShui Xiu dance, originally performed at religious rituals, was relatively preserved in its original form due to the isolation of the Tibetan society until the 1950s. Its artistic value came to light internationally after the opening up of China in 1978. With the coming of the ‘New China’ era, large numbers of Shuixiu practitioners began to move to large cities to spread the dance, leading to its present day status as a traditional dance enjoyed by the entire Chinese nation.\n\nCharacteristics:\n∙Original dance based on the Shuixiu dance\n∙Vigorous flinging of the long shuixiu sleeves\n\nPerformed by College of Art, Chengdu Sport University\nDirected by 로봉

Masks and mask dance exist through which they try to realize equality and be free from judgement, allowing you to express yourself as an equal in society regardless of class. The mask dance festival starts on the last Friday of September and lasts for ten days, and over a million people visit domestically and internationally. It has garnered attention from world leaders. Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, George H. Bush and George W. Bush of the USA, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and other influential leaders have attended. The festival is about mixing modernity with tradition coming together, creating a mosaic of different colors and cultural significance. They use the mask dance festival as a collaborative tool that can bring various cultures together. The mask dance festival also plays a large role in transmitting the heritage to younger generations through various associations that function as a network.

The Tai communities live in Son La, Lai Chau, Yen Bai and Dien Bien provinces in the Northwest of Viet Nam. Kin Pang Then is one of Then's important rituals of the Tai people. This is the occasion where the Then master and his followers perform a thanksgiving ritual for the Then god. The ritual includes songs and music that symbolically express the journey of the Then Master to travel to the other world to look for the lost souls of the disciples/clients and to call the souls coming back to their bodies. The film is about the destined ritual Master and his ritual performance with Xoe dance for healing, good luck and well being for the local people. The film demonstrates the spiritual life and religious Then practice of the Tai in Northwestern religion in Viet Nam.

The Tai communities live in Son La, Lai Chau, Yen Bai and Dien Bien provinces in the Northwest of Viet Nam. Kin Pang Then is one of Then's important rituals of the Tai people. This is the occasion where the Then master and his followers perform a thanksgiving ritual for the Then god. The ritual includes songs and music that symbolically express the journey of the Then Master to travel to the other world to look for the lost souls of the disciples/clients and to call the souls coming back to their bodies. The film is about the destined ritual Master and his ritual performance with Xoe dance for healing, good luck and well being for the local people. The film demonstrates the spiritual life and religious Then practice of the Tai in Northwestern religion in Viet Nam.

The peacock is known as the king of the birds in Yunnan. The Dai people especially regard peacocks as symbols of luck, beauty and purity. Even today, people dance or watch the Peacock Dance during joyful occasions or festivals. Many dances among the folk dances of the Dai mimic the movements of animals. The Peacock Dance is the most famous and popular among such dances. There is a set order and format to the Peacock Dance. It consists of movements depicting it coming out of the nest, surveying its surroundings nimbly, walking calmly, find water, drinking water, playing with leisure, flapping its wings or folding and spreading its wings. Although the role of the peacock is usually played by a female dancer these days, it used to be performed by a male dancer in the past. The Dai people make up the 11th largest ethnic minority group in China among the 56 officially recognized by the Chinese government. They are mostly concentrated in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, and further spread out across Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar.\n\nCharacteristics:\n∙Dance mimicking the movements of animals\n\nPerformed by Kunming Ethnic Song and Dance Company\nChoreographed by Yang Zhou

Miniature - in fine art, a small picture of careful and elegant decoration, with a thin overlay of colors. A special type of miniature is painting with varnish, oil or tempera on the surface of small varnish products. In the art of miniature, there are various schools and directions. In the ХV–ХVII centuries portrait genre and the description of historical events became consistent and basic theme in art schools of Central Asia. Coming exactly to this century, such creative schools as “Samarkand school of miniature”, “Gerat School of miniature”, “Baburids’ school of miniature” has been formed.

The tug-of-war is widely spread throughout the world, especially in agricultural communities. The Gijisi Tug-of-War Festival is highly regarded. Held on the second weekend in April, it has a five-hundred-year history. The event, which is based on agriculture, fishery, and merchant traditions, is held to wish for prosperity and good luck for the coming year. The tug-of-war represents the agricultural, rural, and social characteristics of the region. The rope used for the event is two hundred meters long and one meter thick, so it is truly a community event. Similar tug-of-war games are also held in other nations. After creating a museum for Gijisi tug-of-war, members discovered that it could be a symbol of the region, so the local government invested into the museum. After building the museum, we wanted to expand our knowledge of tug-of-war events in other countries. In the past, there wasn’t much communication among the different communities celebrating tug-of-war festivities. However, after building the museum, we had the opportunity to invite other countries as a sort of network that allows research into other types of tug-of-war in the Asia-Pacific region. As Gijisi tug-of-war is well known, we thought that having a festival to display other cultures’ traditional tug-of-war through a networked festival. \n\nTug-of-war (juldarigi in Korean) is an intangible heritage that is commonly found in various regions across the world. In particular, it is a popular activity that takes place with the aim to foster harmony and solidarity among communities in rice-farming regions across Korea, Japan,and various Southeast Asian countries.

Xuanzi Dance is performed at gatherings such as holiday celebrations and weddings in regions populated by the Zang people such as the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Everyone participates in this communal dance, coming into a large circle. Xuanzi dance is an expression of the unique sentiments and emotions of the Zang, passed down over generations and recognized as the pinnacle of traditional Zang dances.\n\nXuanzi dance is characterized by the four qualities of lightness, softness, bouncing and spontaneity. The dancers keep bouncing up and down on their knees throughout the dance. The movements of the upper body include flailing the arms while wearing the traditional long-sleeved costume of the Zangs, waving the sleeves, covering the arms with the sleeves and throwing the sleeves. These movements create the elegant and beautiful lines of Xuanzi. The line is a crucial element in Chinese aesthetics and the aesthetics of Chinese dance. This aesthetic of lines is clearly visible in Xuanzi dance.\n\nCharacteristics:\n∙Waving or shaking arms while wearing traditional costumes with long sleeves\n∙Light, soft and relaxed movements\n\nPerformed by Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region Ethnic Dance Company\nDirected by Liu lifu

Intangible Cultural Heritage Elements of Ferghana Valley: Traditional Craftsmanship\n\nThe Ferghana Valley is a cradle of ancient Uzbek cultural traditions. In this area, creative folk arts, such as dancing, music, applied art, performances, and national games are highly developed and interconnected as are customs, traditions, and events. Uzbeks, Tajiks, Uyghurs, Kyrgyzs, Turks, Russians, and people of other national and ethnic backgrounds live in the Ferghana Valley. While they maintain and hold their own folk traditions, customs, and festivities, they also engage in Navruz and Mehrjon holidays with each other.\n\n1. Guli Arghuvon Festival\nThe expedition team to Ferghana Valley video-taped the Guli Arghuvon Festival that takes place every spring in the Do‘sti Khudo Graveyard in the Oltiariq District. The holiday is connected with the blossoming of the arghuvon plants (cercis siliquastrum) that grow in front of the graveyard’s mausoleum and stay in bloom for three days. While this particular event is not celebrated elsewhere, similar events, such as Qizil Gul or Guli Surkh (Red Flower), Lola Sayli (Tulip Festivity), Sunbul Sayli (Hyacinth Festivity), and Gunafsha Sayli (Viola Festivity), have found their way onto traditional calendars in different regions. Due to the historically agrarian Uzbek culture, many of its traditions, such as the Guli Arghuvon Festival and the others mentioned, are related to praising plant life and nature itself. Ancient faiths saw the eternity of nature with death coming in autumn when the trees lose their leaves and life returning when plants blossom in early spring. This point of view is the basis for many beliefs and events in agrarian cultures. The Guli Arghuvon Festival is based on ancient calendar events that unite agrarian beliefs and culture with ideas relating to harvests. Holding the event in a graveyard connects the idea that nature undergoes death and birth in the circle of seasonal change.

The Ferghana Valley is a cradle of ancient Uzbek cultural traditions. In this area, creative folk arts, such as dancing, music, applied art, performances, and national games are highly developed and interconnected as are customs, traditions, and events. Uzbeks, Tajiks, Uyghurs, Kyrgyzs, Turks, Russians, and people of other national and ethnic backgrounds live in the Ferghana Valley. While they maintain and hold their own folk traditions, customs, and festivities, they also engage in Navruz and Mehrjon holidays with each other.\n\n1. Guli Arghuvon Festival\nThe expedition team to Ferghana Valley video-taped the Guli Arghuvon Festival that takes place every spring in the Do‘sti Khudo Graveyard in the Oltiariq District. The holiday is connected with the blossoming of the arghuvon plants (cercis siliquastrum) that grow in front of the graveyard’s mausoleum and stay in bloom for three days. While this particular event is not celebrated elsewhere, similar events, such as Qizil Gul or Guli Surkh (Red Flower), Lola Sayli (Tulip Festivity), Sunbul Sayli (Hyacinth Festivity), and Gunafsha Sayli (Viola Festivity), have found their way onto traditional calendars in different regions. Due to the historically agrarian Uzbek culture, many of its traditions, such as the Guli Arghuvon Festival and the others mentioned, are related to praising plant life and nature itself. Ancient faiths saw the eternity of nature with death coming in autumn when the trees lose their leaves and life returning when plants blossom in early spring. This point of view is the basis for many beliefs and events in agrarian cultures. The Guli Arghuvon Festival is based on ancient calendar events that unite agrarian beliefs and culture with ideas relating to harvests. Holding the event in a graveyard connects the idea that nature undergoes death and birth in the circle of seasonal change.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Elements of Ferghana Valley: Social Practices, Rituals and Festive Events\n\nOne of the most ancient cultural locations of Uzbekistan is the Ferghana Valley, which is especially attractive for its peculiar social practices, customs, rituals and folklore song traditions.\n\n1. Shombarak Event\nThe term shombarak means ‘evening welcome’, the name given to the process of taking the bride to the groom’s house. The event is conducted as follows: After the groom puts on the wedding clothes sent by the bride, he goes to the bride’s house accompanied by his friends. Meanwhile, at the bride’s house, the bride’s relatives and neighbours gather and wait for the groom’s arrival. When the groom and his friends are seen from afar, two to three boys go into the bride’s house shouting, ‘The groom is coming’. Shortly thereafter, the groom and his friends, singers, and musicians walk into the house dancing and singing the song ‘Shombarak’. In Shahrikhon, the song is performed in Uzbek and Tajik languages. In addition, after the groom and his friends enter, they also sing folk songs ‘Hay Yor Do‘st, Aylanaman’ (Hey Beloved Friend, I am Enchanted) and ‘Vohay Bola’ (Hey, Guy). In the Asaka District, events connected with conducting a wedding party were studied. The customs associated with the groom’s arrival were recorded. These include laying a cloth under the feet of the groom, spreading a kerchief in front of him (a tradition called ‘blocking the road’), presenting a knife to the bride’s young brother, throwing candies over bride’s head, and singing the song ‘Deydiyo’.\n\n2. Lachak Event\nLachak is another wedding-related event, which takes place when the bride is leaving her family home to join her new husband. The bride's relatives and her mother-in-law attend the lachak event. During a special ceremony that takes place during the lachak, the bride wears a lachak scarf and receives presents from her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. Following the gift-giving ceremony, a number of folksongs are performed, including yor-yor and lapar songs. When the bride is ready to leave, two breads are laid on her head to express wishes of fertility and prosperity. Then the bride bows to each present while the song `Kelin Salom' is performed. Thereafter, the bride is seen off to groom's house accompanied by a yor-yor song. Through practicing the lachak event, a number of folk songs and practices in Ferghana Valley are preserved.