中國少數民族手工藝采風之旅在京正式啟動

Zhu Zheqin (a.k.a. Dadawa) kicked-off Monday in Beijing her "Chinese Ethnic Handicraft Collection Tour," as part of her joint initiative with UNDP "Show the World."

??????? 世界知名音樂藝術家、聯合國開發計劃署中國親善大使朱哲琴（Dadawa）女士周一在北京正式發起“中國少數民族手工藝采風之旅”活動。該活動是她與聯合國開發計劃署共同發起的“世界看見”親善行動的一部分。作為聯合國開發計劃署中國親善大使，朱哲琴女士將通過保護瀕臨失傳的珍貴的民族音樂和手工藝，以文化復興帶動并促進中國少數民族地區的發展。

???????啟動儀式上，朱哲琴女士詳細介紹了2010年“世界看見”手工藝采風之旅的工作計劃。她說：“此次采風之旅的主要目的是幫助少數民族地區開展手工藝品的品牌包裝和市場推廣。我將利用自身豐富的藝術工作經驗，與親善行動小組一道，通過與設計師、品牌和市場專業人士、文化企業和媒體的合作，幫助少數民族地區創造自己的市場品牌，將具有豐富文化內涵的手工藝品推向更廣泛、更高端的市場。”

???????在中國銀行的支持下，中國少數民族手工藝采風之旅將由朱哲琴女士帶領她的親善行動工作團隊，并匯集中國頂級設計師、行業專家和記者，奔赴云南、貴州、西藏、青海和內蒙古五個地區進行實地考察，探尋當地少數民族的文化遺產，對手工藝品的制作流程進行記載。

???????在啟動儀式的演講中，聯合國開發計劃署駐華代表處副國別主任森本秋繪女士指出了采風之旅的雙重意義。她說：“這次采風之旅不僅能夠展示傳統民族音樂和手工藝之美，還致力于加強少數民族地區和世界的溝通，有效地利用文化復興的力量促進發展。”

???????去年，朱哲琴女士和其親善團隊率先展開了中國少數民族音樂尋訪之旅——“世界看見”中國少數民族文化保護與發展親善行動的第一階段活動。她們深入云南、內蒙、新疆、西藏、貴州等地進行實地考察——在兩個月的旅途中，全部行程達20,000 多公里，共采集音樂樣本1,000 余首，圖片記錄20,000 多張，影像記錄15,000 分鐘。收集的音樂樣本將被整合錄制成一套雙CD專輯，并計劃于2010年發布。“世界聽·見·朱哲琴”世界巡演將會重點展示這些樣本，為保護中國民族音樂，推動中國多元文化走向世界而努力。

???????中國擁有世界上最多的少數民族人口，約一億零六百萬人。但是少數民族人口卻占據了較高的貧困比例。全國貧困人口的52%是少數民族。然而，中國的文化財富大部分都源于這55個少數民族獨特而多樣的文化。這一點正是此次采風之旅依靠文化復興推動發展的靈感來源。

Chinese Ethnic Handicraft Collection Tour kicks off in Beijing

World-renowned music artist and National Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China, Ms. Zhu Zheqin (a.k.a. Dadawa) kicked-off Monday in Beijing her "Chinese Ethnic Handicraft Collection Tour," as part of her joint initiative with UNDP "Show the World." In her capacity as UNDP's national Goodwill Ambassador, Dadawa will promote culture-based development for ethnic minorities in China through preserving culturally invaluable ethnic music and handicrafts that are at risk of being lost.

Introducing the details of the "Show the World" handicraft collection tour working plan at the launching ceremony, Dadawa said: "The main objective of this project is to provide marketing and branding support to ethnic minority communities. Along with my team, I will leverage my extensive experience working in arts circles to bring together designers, marketing and branding professionals, cultural enterprises and the media to help minority communities to develop marketable brands, so that their culturally rich handicrafts reach wider and higher-end markets."

Supported by Bank of China, this innovative tour will lead Dadawa and her Goodwill Action team, together with A-list Chinese designers, industry experts and journalists, to conduct field visits to Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Qinhai and Inner Mongolia to explore local ethnic cultural heritages and record handicraft production process.

Silvia Morimoto, Deputy Country Director of UNDP China, in her address to the launch commented on the mutually beneficial nature of the tour's objective, saying "showcasing the beauty in traditional ethnic music and handicraft, enhancing communication between ethnic minority regions and the world, it effectively harnesses the power of culture revival as an engine for development."

Last year, Dadawa and her Goodwill Action team launched their Chinese Ethnic Music Collection Tour, another "Show the World" activity. They traveled 20,000 km to make field visits within Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Guizhou, collecting 1000 cultural music samples, recording over 20,000 photos and shooting over 15,000 minutes of video over the course of their two-month undertaking. The music samples collected will be compiled into a two-CD album, to be released in 2010. The samples will also be featured in Dadawa's coming world tour, aimed at preserving Chinese folk music while promoting the integration of China's diverse cultures into the modern world.

The inspiration for the tour's focus on culture-based development is that China has the world's biggest ethnic minority population, 106 million people, but this population is disproportionately poor. It represents 52 percent of China's entire population in poverty, yet China owes much of its cultural wealth to the unique diversity of its 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups.

(China.org.cn)