The 2017 China Intangible Cultural Heritage Event opened in grand style at the Stockholm Chinese Cultural Center on June 15, highlighting the centuries-old Qilu culture. Jointly organized by the Shandong provincial department of culture and the Stockholm Chinese Cultural Center, the event will last until June 17.

Qilu refers to the kingdoms of the Qi and Lu, in what is now Shandong, before the founding of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC). It is sometimes used as another name for Shandong province, one of the birthplaces of Chinese culture and civilization.

An artist from the Shandong Peking Opera Theater performs Peking Opera at the Stockholm Chinese Cultural Center on June 15. [Photo/ sdwht.gov.cn]

Featuring demonstrations of Shandong cultural legacies such as Weifang kites, Yangjiabu woodblock new year paintings, Dongming grain paintings, Caozhou dough figurines and Laixi puppets as well as performances of Peking Opera, the event showcases Shandong province’s contribution to Chinese culture.

Many Swedish people are fascinated by the exquisite design, vivid image, voluptuous color and enriched native breath of Weifang kites at the Stockholm Chinese Cultural Center on June 15. [Photo/ sdwht.gov.cn]

Some 40 Rizhao farmers’ paintings covering different periods are also being exhibited. These paintings, portraying folk customs and rural life in the Shandong countryside, provide a full evaluation of Shandong folk art and its rural community to the exhibition's visitors in Sweden. The exhibition will last until September.

Beginning in the late 1950s, farmers' paintings developed from simple illustrations for publicity purposes into a dynamic artistic genre in China, particularly in Huxian, Jinshan of Shanghai, and Rizhao in Shandong province.

More than 100 distinguished guests from China and Stockholm took part in the cultural event, including Chen Yuming, Chinese ambassador to Sweden, and Pu Zhengdong, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden and head of the Chinese Culture Center.

Chen highly commented the event and hope that Shandong and Sweden would further strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation.