Yu Huiwen, a deputy to the National People's Congress and Secretary of the Communist Party of China Dazu District Committee, takes an exquisite hand-painted scroll about the Dazu Rock Carvings with him to participate in the Two Sessions in Beijing.
Yu Huiwen takes the exquisite hand-painted scroll with him to participate in the Two Sessions in Beijing. (Photo provided to iChongqing).
He said this hand-painted scroll was of special significance. It is created by Mr. Guo Xiangying, the first curator of the Dazu Rock Carvings Museum. He has devoted three years of painstaking efforts to this exquisite 23.15-meter-long scroll.
Before his trip to Beijing, Yu Huiwen shows the hand-painted scroll he will take to Beijing. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
At the 23rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held at Marrakesh, Morocco, on December 1, 1999, Yu Huiwen introduced the Dazu Rock Carvings with the hand-painted scroll to the world. Finally, the Dazu Rock Carvings was listed as a world cultural heritage site with a unanimous vote.
Three reasons for bringing it
"Cultural relics carry the splendid civilization, inherit the history and culture, and maintain the national spirit. I bring it to the Two Sessions for three reasons." The first reason, cited by Yu Huiwen, lies in the importance of grottoes preservation. The Dazu Rock Carvings are the largest grottoes in south China and the only one listed as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO in south China. As the humid climate in south China makes it difficult to protect the grottoes, Yu Huiwen will submit suggestions to strengthen the preservation of stone cave temples, including the Dazu Rock Carvings, at the Two Sessions. "So, I bring it with me for submitting suggestions."
The second reason is to raise the influence and national awareness of Dazu Rock Carvings and spread the excellent traditional Chinese cultural concepts in Dazu Rock Carvings such as love, kindness, filial piety, righteousness, and integrity, to enhance the confidence in culture.
The third reason is to promote Dazu tourism. Due to the COVID-19, tourism in Dazu rebounded after a suspension in 2020. The number of tourists and tourism revenue in Dazu recovered to about 84% of those in 2019. The number of group tourists staying overnight at Dazu in 2020 increased eightfold compared to 2019. During that period, Dazu did a lot to provide better tourism services. Permitting the supply of medium and high-end tourism products has also become a focus for Dazu to implement the new development concept comprehensively and integrate itself into the new development paradigm in the new development stage.
Compile Dazu Rock Carvings into textbooks
Yu Huiwen proposed Dazu Rock Carvings' inclusion into the unified national textbooks at the Two Sessions 2020.
Yu Huiwen said that in his first inspection of the Dazu Rock Carvings after arriving in Dazu, he found that many teenagers understood grottoes in Dunhuang, Yungang, and Longmen, but they had no idea about the status and value of the Dazu Rock Carvings in the world.
In his view, Dazu Rock Carvings are born in Dazu and belong to China and the world. Its inclusion into the unified national textbooks will give teenagers a deeper understanding of Chinese and global grottoes art and play a positive role in cultivating teenagers' outlook on life, world and value. Therefore, he proposed Dazu Rock Carvings' inclusion into the unified national textbooks to make more teenagers proud of Dazu Rock Carvings and raise its global awareness.
"This suggestion was highly valued and affirmed by the Ministry of Education, which deemed that the inclusion was of great value," said Yu Huiwen. The Ministry of Education communicated with him many times to discuss the form of inclusion. After several discussions, the Ministry of Education finally decided to include the Dazu Rock Carvings into the national unified history textbooks with pictures and texts." Moreover, both sides discussed the choice of pictures several times.
Tourism development of Dazu Rock Carvings
Yu Huiwen believes that inclusion is another major breakthrough in the preservation and inheritance of Dazu Rock Carvings. Meanwhile, Dazu will focus on the goals of creating global excellence in four aspects and speed up efforts to raise the global profile of Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute so as to create an academic landscape in which Dunhuang Academy and Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute constitute the mainstay, and to attract more cultural and young people and foreigners to appreciate the unique charm of stone carving art in Dazu.
Yu Huiwen also said that Dazu plans to organize the conference for promoting the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor and cultural tourism development conference in early July this year when lotus flowers and Chinese flowering crabapples are in full bloom. It will invite the culture and tourism departments from Chongqing, Sichuan, and other parts of China to Dazu to appreciate stone carvings, go sightseeing in local scenic areas, raft on Longshui Lake, and taste local food. By showing its natural landscape and cultural deposits, Dazu will strive to make this event a pragmatic cooperation conference to promote the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor and discuss tourism development with joints efforts.