Nantong University held the opening ceremony of a traditional printing and dyeing skills training seminar on Nov 5 in Chongchuan district, Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province. The seminar, which is being held for the fourth time, will last for one month.

The seminar forms part of a series of training sessions dedicated to the inheritors of Chinese intangible cultural heritages, and is jointly held by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Art work of Chinese blue calico [Photo/wuyuanxin.com]

Art work of Chinese blue calico [Photo/wuyuanxin.com]

Thirty inheritors of the Chinese blue calico’s traditional printing and dyeing were in attendance, and are from 10 different provinces and cities, including Beijing, Guizhou, Hunan, Shandong and Zhejiang. They all gathered at Nantong University with the goal of learning more about traditional skills through the different courses on offer, receiving both theoretical and practical training.

In addition, experts from the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the China Academy of Art will be giving additional lectures on relevant topics. Venues such as the Chinese Blue Calico Art Research Institute of Nantong University, Nantong Museum and the Blue Calico Museum are all being used as venues for these lectures.

Nantong’s traditional technique on printing and dyeing Chinese blue calico was listed as an intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

The University has been dedicated to training talented individuals in China’s intangible cultural heritages and traditional culture for quite some time. Having founded the Chinese Blue Calico Art Research Institute in 2008, it was the first university in China to bring intangible cultural heritages and inheritors onto campuses.

Wu Yonghong, deputy mayor of Nantong, was also seen attending the opening ceremony.