GUIYANG, China, July 31, 2025 -- A news report by Huanqiu.com

At 4 p.m. on June 2, the "Mind Quest Between Heaven and Earth: 2025 (Year of Yisi) Dragon Boat Festival Yangming Cultural and Creative Show at the Confucius Academy" successfully concluded, which attracted more than 20,000 visitors.

The event ingeniously combined the elements of cultural and creative products, traditional festival, and intangible cultural heritage techniques, realizing the cross-temporal brainstorming between Qu Yuan and Wang Yangming, the artistic presentation of the wisdom of the Mind Study and the patriotic sentiments towards the country and family, and the empowerment of a cultural and creative brand by thematic activities. The Confucius Academy's new "cultural dissemination" pattern featuring "human, scenario and venue" is innovatively shaping a new cultural cluster and a new cultural IP for Guizhou Province.

Cultivating festival-themed IP

Concentrating on the triple functional orientations of education, research and dissemination, the Confucius Academy has actively integrated festival customs and cultural connotations into traditional Chinese festivals including the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, and successfully developed the IP of "Our Festivals".

In this Dragon Boat Festival, the Confucius Academy focused on Guizhou's "Four Cultural Programs" to deeply absorb the revolutionary culture, Yangming culture, ethnic culture and Tunpu (military outpost) culture.

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, Qu Yuan, transformed into a "cultural wanderer", visited Wang Yangming to discuss on "Quest for Heavenly Truth" and "Study of the Mind" in a three-act cultural play. The "Riverside Odes" session combined an ethnic cultural fashion show and modern dance. Amidst the intermingling dancers, the models dressed in ethnic minority costumes showed the Yangming-themed cultural and creative products on the runway. The "Wang Yangming's Quest for Truth" session presented a dance-poetry drama that a duet of Wang Yangming and Qu Yuan depicted their conversation on pursuing the truth between heaven and earth. The "Guizhou as Home" session was a fusion of Anshun Di Opera and modern dance, which followed Wang Yangming's Study of the Mind as the soul, and "Tunpu's sentiments towards the country and family" as the main thread to construct a spiritual dialogue spanning 600 years.

Combining strengths of incubation platforms

The Yangming Cultural and Creative Show is more than a cultural performance, but carries the mission of "bringing tradition into life". At the event, the Confucius Academy in Guiyang invited a number of designers and intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and held a plaque-awarding ceremony for the "Confucius Academy's Second-batch Partners of Yangming Cultural and Creative Incubation Platforms"."

How can we creatively realize the revival of traditional Chinese culture and reproduce the natural charm and interest in history? Zhou Hang, creative director and designer of Animation Zhou Studio envisaged, "I hope to make use of we-media, funny animations and design capability to present the Yangming culture in a more accessible way to the world."

Inspired by Wang Yangming's Study of the Mind and the picturesque scenery of Guizhou, the "Yangming Cultural and Creative", the inaugural cultural and creative brand of the Confucius Academy, had its debut at the event that more than 300 cultural and creative products were displayed, including bibelots, stationery, tea and water sets, and fragrance.

Providing intangible cultural heritage experience

In addition to cultural exhibition, the event also featured a "study tour". Visitors showed great interest in the intangible cultural heritage workshops of lacquer fans, tie dyeing, paper cutting, woodcarving, tea cultivation, rope weaving, pottery art and Miao silverwork.

The sachet-making zone offered diverse Chinese medicinal herbs such as lemongrass, honeysuckle, albizia flower, mugwort leaf, mint and angelica. Visitors selected and mixed herbs for different effects, crushed them and then wrapped them in beautiful sachets to get special handmade souvenirs for the Dragon Boat Festival.