Earlier this month, UNESCO announced the latest additions to its world intangible heritage list. One of the items new to the prestigious list is the traditional technique of block printing preserved in the East China city of Yangzhou.
The block printing tradition of Yangzhou city goes back some 13 centuries to the mid-Tang Dynasty. After hundreds of years of innovation and improvement, the techniques turned the city into one of China´s publishing centers in the early Qing Dynasty. Although mechanized modern printing presses were widely introduced more than a century ago, the techniques of block printing are still preserved, thanks to the city's support of the Guangling Bookmaking Workshop.
Currently the workshop is home to some of China´s most accomplished block printing workers. Over the decades, they have worked conscientiously to add to the workshop´s huge collection of age-old printing blocks.
The application for a place on the UNESCO list was filed last October by the Yangzhou municipal government. It was a joint effort by the Nanjing Buddhist Scripture Printing Shop and the Sichuan Dege Buddhist Library. The tradition´s inclusion in the UNESCO list underscores the significance of the techniques in the circulation of books and ideas in human history.
Right now, the Yangzhou city is working out measures for the better protection and preservation of the techniques.
Editor: Feng Hui
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