These days, "intangible cultural heritage" is a hot topic in the cultural field. These cultural heritages keep alive our ancestors' creativity and life scenes.

Currently, an exhibition about the intangible cultural heritages of China is underway at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center in the Chinese capital.

It's a rare chance for the public to see so many handicrafts and the process of making them all in one place. These handicrafts are all intangible cultural heritages of China, and have been well preserved by locals with help from the government.

188 items are displayed at the free exhibition being held at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center. And almost all the items have a nationally ranked inheritor to demonstrate how to make them.

These lanterns are a specialty from Xianju County of east China's Zhejiang Province. They are made without using any bamboo or wooden frame, and the patterns are all made using a needle. This delicate art would likely vanish if not for the effort of Li Xiangman.

Li Xiangman said, "This lantern is called 'Tang' lantern, for it originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). I found the lanterns in 1983, back then only 12 old men in our town could make them. So I began to learn the craft. Now I have some 100 apprentices. I became a national class inheritor of the craft in 2006."

2006 was also the year that China named its first batch of intangible cultural heritages. Now there are over 1200 items on the national list. The world got behind this issue earlier, with the UN choosing its first world's list in 2001. Since then, people are understanding the importance of preservation more and more.

The cultural intangible heritages include endangered performances, skills and rituals. Exhibitions like this help to keep alive the cultural diversity of the past. So preserving the heritage items is preserving human history and a nation's cultural identity.

Being a heritage means few people are doing it. The scarcity of seeing them are part of the reason some people come to watch the exhibition.

A visitor said, "These items will be fewer and fewer in the future. So I have come for a visit. It also enlarges my knowledge." The exhibition, which drew a lot of festival crowds during the opening day Sunday, will last for 10 days through February 15.

(CNTV.cn February 7, 2012)