19 Jul 2024
In the recently held Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, the ‘Lanting’ intangible cultural heritage studio stood out among 117 teams and won the Excellence Award. The studio consists of 7 students from Design School, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and International Business School.
As a new-generation intangible cultural heritage studio of XJTLU, ‘Lanting’ adheres to the brand concept and cultural values of "Seeing People, Seeing Things, Seeing Life", providing customised cultural and creative products and cultural activities with a sense of identity and belonging to achieve win-win cultivation of culture and people.
Previously, they designed and produced a paper kite-shaped key chain combining the identity of XJTLU with the characteristics of Suzhou, which was well received by many teachers and students.
Two members of the team, Yuxuan Zhang and Xiyuan Shen, 2nd year undergraduate students in Urban Planning and Design, said: “The design of this key chain is inspired by the school motto of XJTLU, ‘Light and Wings’, and combined with the featured national cultural heritage, paper kite, which implies that XJTLU supports students develop their wings and pursue their dreams.
“The front of the paper kite is embedded with the XJTLU shield and the Liverpool Pavilion elements, and the wings borrow Suzhou characteristics and the featured symbols of the Jiangnan water town, the ‘Eight water plants’ - lotus root, water chestnut, wild rice, Brasenia schreberi, cichlid mushroom, water chestnut, chicken head rice and watercress - as the pattern, reflecting the integration, symbiosis and flourishing of Chinese and Western cultures at XJTLU, in Suzhou.”
As students in the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Yuxuan Zhang and Xiyuan Shen have gained considerable inspiration and influence from the module UPD110, Neighbourhood Planning.
Yuxuan Zhang said: “The UPD110 group project guided us to use innovative approaches to bring people and places closer together, and to cultivate a community culture by creating opportunities for interaction and bridging communication among residents. Group work is a collaborative project with the community and it has enabled us to go out of campus and go into community.
“Through interviews with community staff and residents, we learned that the community also organised intangible cultural heritage activities before and that the residents very welcome intangible cultural heritage activities, which give us a lot of confidence of the potential market for our products.
“The module leaders of Neighbourhood Planning, Dr Ying Chang and Dr Kon Kim, have also been encouraging us to develop cultural innovation and add character and vibrancy to the places. The thematic activities we planned for the neighbourhood included ‘Knowing the Kite’, ‘Appreciating the Kite’, ‘Searching for the Kite’ and ‘Making the Kite’. The half-day programme included activities ranging from cognitive development of cultural aesthetics, as well as people-place interaction and co-creation activities, creating rich experiences and shared memories to the residents.
“Prior to the final, our teachers recommended that we present and practise our project to visiting parents and students on the Design School open day. Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel, Dean of the Design School, and Dr Sophie Sturup, Senior Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Design, also participated in our project, and they gave us great confidence and encouragement by writing down their understandings and expectations of the Urban Planning and Design profession on paper kites.
“We used the paper kites with the motto written by the teachers as a medium of communication with parents, introduced them to the Urban Planning and Design, and gave the paper kites to parents and students as a wonderful memory and souvenir of the Open Day. Having seen the parents and students going home with the paper kites, we felt the value created by our innovation and became more confident.
“At the UPD110 final review open exhibition event, the teachers also invited community representatives to XJTLU to show them our proposals for the micro-renewal of community spaces this semester. We also prepared paper kites for each group to record their memories of the group work co-creation. We hope a quick activity to help the participants interact and have a new experience of community and place, which is also an application of the Tactical Placemaking (TP) techniques we learned in our Neighbourhood Planning class.”
Xiyuan Shen also mentioned that Lanting Studio hopes to find the commonalities between the characteristics of XJTLU and intangible cultural heritage, and to make products that can promote Chinese culture while telling the story of intangible cultural heritage.
“As a Sino-foreign university, XJTLU has a great platform, and we also hope that the 2+2 students going to Liverpool will help our cultural and creative products go abroad, sharing and promoting traditional Chinese culture and the unique culture of XJTLU to the world.
“We have also successfully cooperated with the XJTLU Admissions Office, supported admissions events with our products,” she added.
By Yi Qian
Translated by Yizhuo Liang
Photos provided by Lanting Studio and Department of Urban Planning and Design
19 Jul 2024