Ancient Dongba culture expected to endure in digital era
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 16, 2018
Additionally, the team filmed a number of documentaries to make a record of local lives and customs in the hope that the cultural heritage can be passed down to future generations. Two of those documentaries — "The Return of the Dongba Manuscripts" and "Traditional Naxi Papermaking and the Culture It Transmits"—received international acclaim in 2015 when they won the Best Humanities Documentary Award at the 10th Chinese Film Festival in Paris.
"The research of Dongba culture conducted by Western scholars in early age highlights the historical significance of the culture among modern international academic society," said Zhang. "But sadly that research, which covered international, historical and modern dimensions, did not survive—a loss as profound as the dying culture of the Naxi ethnic group itself."
Xu Xiaoli, a professor from the Beijing Information Science and Technology University and chief expert of the program, echoed Zhang: "For various historical reasons, the manuscripts of Dongba culture, the only surviving pictographic writings, have been scattered around the world, their value lost like an unnoticed treasure trove. Worst of all, those who can interpret the ancient manuscripts are becoming fewer and fewer."
"Therefore," Xu added, "the establishment of a digital platform disseminating the Dongba classics around international communities to protect and pass down the precious cultural heritage for mankind presents a creative solution suited not only to the Dongba culture, but also other cultural heritages in China and elsewhere that appear on [UNESCO's] Memory of the World register."
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