By Rui Hu, iChongqing News

By mid-September, Chongqing and its cultural industry will usher in an invigorating climate. The 8th Chongqing International Cultural Industry Expo (CQCIE) will be held from September 12 to 15 at Chongqing International Expo Center. It will attract some 2,500 merchant visitors in over 200 industries from nearly 30 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions, from 28 countries.

accessory from India

Culture, scenery, and achievements

This March, a cultural tourism promotion activity themed “Share Cultures and Landscapes” launched in the city has demonstrated the charm and makings of each district and county. The “Share Cultures and Landscapes” achievement exhibition this time will further tell the stories of the districts and counties by displaying their cultural tourism works and landscapes in the forms of live-action microfilms, videos, pictures, and texts.

Chongqing Tuo Tea

Belt & Road Countries` products

Since its inception, Chongqing Cultural Industry Expo has not only provided an exhibition platform for domestic cultural and creative sectors but also found its own way towards the global market. For the 8th CQCIE this year, “international” becomes a keyword. At this session, foreign exhibitors from more than 20 countries are expected to outnumber the sum of those at the previous seven sessions. Over 200 booths in the specially-established Belt and Road Hall of World Cultures will introduce diversified cultural tourism products to their visitors.

For the 8th CQCIE this year, “international” becomes a keyword. The picture is chocolate from Belgium

At present, the Belt and Road Hall has invited a country-level cultural exhibition delegation consisting of the consulates of 7 countries, including Japan, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, the Philippines, Italy, and Hungary. The exhibitors will also include cultural trade organizations from over 20 countries, such as Belarus, South Korea, North Korea, Belgium, Pakistan, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Poland, India, Russia, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Ghana.

Japanese performance

To be noted, the British Library Shop will also be present. Situated in St Pancras, this shop has been known for its novel designs. This time, the British Library Shop brings its new derivatives that were inspired by the classic fairy tale The Wizard of Oz. The product series, including shopping bags, badges, and stickers, are derived from the illustrations of The New Wizard of Oz by William Wallace Denslow. Gift bags containing The Wizard of Oz series will be given to lucky dogs who have left a comment on the official Weibo of the British Library on September 15.

Handmade wood table from India

According to the Consulate General of Japan at Chongqing, cross-border e-commerce player Chengdu Ito-Yokado E-commerce Co., Ltd. will join as an exhibitor too. As the first subsidiary of Ito-Yokado Chengdu, the company has attracted approximately 200,000 followers since its opening in August 2018, with the maximum daily order volume of over 3,000. What’s more, some other international cultural brands such as Miffy from the Netherlands and Choclito from Belgium will also meet Chongqing citizens at the expo.

Miffy from the Netherlands

When traditional culture collide with cool tech

CQCIE has always been vitally interrelated with traditional culture. This session is specially equipped with a zen-tea culture experience exhibition zone, a flower arrangement performance zone, among others.

Mr. Liu Guangrui, a national-level inheritor of Acupuncture & Liu’s Thorn Ironing Therapy (a national intangible cultural heritage project), an expert at the Ministry of Culture and winner of Xinchuan Prize, will bring some cultural relics and specimens of traditional Chinese medicine.
Moreover, excellent works of Chinese ebony and Phoebe Zhennan S. Lee arts will also stage at the expo. Prominent experts, renowned enterprises, industry masters, relevant university professors, and famous individual gravers are invited there.

A feast of culture and art

At the expo, the well-known Palace Museum shop will have its first trip to Chongqing. From the snowscape to the cats, cultural and creative products and exhibitions, the Palace Museum has now become not only a museum but a sample of cultural products’ entering into people’s daily life. Housing a cluster of palace structures, cultural relics, and historical sites, the Palace Museum is a nearly 600-year-old culture symbol as well as an epitome of traditional Chinese culture. As of December 2018, it has developed more than 11,000 cultural and creative products, harvesting RMB 1.5 bn in 2017. At the CQCIE, it will bring the most vivid experience to Chongqing consumers.

Palace Museum shop will have its first trip to Chongqing

In addition, Chongqing Industrial Arts Association has prepared varieties of exhibits such as Shanshen lacquer, Tang tri-color glazed ceramics, ceramic arts and royal court embroidery by national-level crafts and art masters for visitors at the CQCIE.

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