To be kept alive, intangible cultural heritage must be relevant to its community, continuously recreated and transmitted from one generation to another. ” ——Safeguarding without freezing, UNESCO
This is a story about preserving intangible cultural heritage, as well as revolutionizing it:
A lion dance team founder who pays tribute to traditional folk art but also dare to write his own narratives.
A Peking opera actress who braves performing on new media but stays true to the stage legacy.
Through two character-driven documentaries, Bactroban spotlighted the stories of these young inheritors who revived the performing arts in a modern world.
Leaping back and forth, performing stunts like lifts, or balancing on a tiered platform, lion dancers practise the moves and postures tens of thousands times to perform unmistakably on stage. Amid applause are injuries like scratch or slip and fall they sustain in each day’s practice.
Similarly, painting brows, eyelids, and jowls to intensify the artistic appeal of the historical character on stage, Peking opera performers sometimes find that the heavy makeup triggers their skin condition.
Bactroban, an expert in treating skin infections, found 52% of the Chinese inheritors of intangible cultural heritage are under the age of 30, signifying the young’s growing interest in embracing traditional cultures. Meanwhile, according to market research, 61% of people are misusing drugs when treating skin infections, with young people representing a remarkable proportion.
Bactroban, in partnership with content creation platform Zhiliao Youth, created character documentaries featuring the cultural heritage inheritors’ behind-the-scenes stories; Li Weijie, the founder of the lion dance team “Lian Sheng Tang,” and Guo Xiaojing, a winner of China Theatre Plum Blossom Award representing one of the best theatre performers.
Cheering up every moment of traumas and downs, Bactroban champions every breakthrough the inheritors have made to safeguard as well as recreate the intangible cultural heritage.
BRAVE YOUTH
LION DANCE
“As lion dance performers, we value the journey of passing down the cultural legacy; we pay tribute to traditions and dare to write our own narratives.”
Li Weijie, the founder of the Lian Sheng Tang lion dance reinterpreted the traditional lion dance with his team, which they are performing live on nightclub stages. Replacing the drum beat with electronic music in a modern setting, they’ve transformed this folk art like never before.
BRAVE YOUTH
PEKING OPERA
“Peking opera is the quintessence of cultural succession, which is a long haul and a lifetime commitment.”
Guo Xiaojing, a Peking opera actress, has been versatile in creating trendy short videos, from opera makeups to costumes, to make this traditional art appeal to audiences in a novel and viral way. However, she never takes social buzz as a shortcut; instead, she always stays true to the art performance itself.
As the first OTC brand in metaverse, Bactroban also teamed up with Tencent to recreate the lion dance works into a collection of NFTs, allowing more people to get to know the craftsmanship and culture.
Over half of the NFT collection were claimed within 24 hours of its release. Meanwhile, the blind-box mechanism inspired more users to share.
Brand consideration increased
YOUNG CULTURAL INHERITORS OF LION DANCE & PEKING OPERA
MEDIA PARTNER
ZHILIAO YOUTH
