The training workshop for participants in provincial ICH safeguarding centers across China was previously scheduled for October 2021 during the Chengdu International ICH Festival. However, it was postponed due to strict pandemic control measures in the city, so CRIHAP had to turn it into an online course.

It was the first time CRIHAP held a training workshop for China’s provincial ICH safeguarding centers as part of the festival. The workshop combined the case studies of four Chinese items on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity with relevant content from the 2003 convention. Taking two and an half days, the workshop had almost full attendance and prompted engaging and in-depth discussion among participants.

The online-plus-offline combined mode for the “short but compact” training in 2021 proved to be innovative. The experiences CRIHAP has accumulated will be used for its future training courses.

In 2022,CRIHAP will continue fulfilling its duty as a UNESCO category 2 center, assisting UNESCO in implementing ICH safeguarding capacity-building strategies and providing training services for UNESCO parties in the Asia-Pacific region under the framework of the 2003 convention.

In 2022, CRIHAP plans to hold 10 training workshops, including one global workshop, two regional workshops, three sub-regional workshops, and three country-specific workshops, all in the online-plus-offline mode.

These workshops will not only continue to offer UNESCO’s courses centering on ICH safeguarding capacity-building but also pay close attention to UNESCO’s priorities including the empowerment of youth and the training of ICH safeguarding trainers.

CRIHAP will also keep an eye on the most recent developments in education, climate change, creative industries and digital technologies to explore new p0ssibilities in ICH safeguarding.

By actively participating in international seminars, collecting and editing information about ICH safeguarding from around the world and constantly updating the basic texts of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, CRIHAP will do better in monitoring and interpreting UNESCO’s strategies, policies and measures related to ICH safeguarding, follow the hot issues in ICH safeguarding worldwide and the latest developments in ICH safeguarding in UNESCO’s states, and devise targeted training plans that can be integrated into its future training courses.

At the same time, CRIHAP will compile English-Chinese bilingual publicity materials and publish the follow-up results of training so as to better serve China’s ICH safeguarding.

In 2022, CRIHAP will move forward with the publication of an English-Chinese bilingual book entitled The Basic Texts of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Practices in Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Capacity-building and will compile a book to record the follow-up results of a series of training workshops for Thailand and Bangladesh.

CRIHAP will put emphasis on five aspects in its medium and long term development plan: innovation, balance, inclusiveness, and sustainability.

For innovation, CRIHAP will explore more creative working and teaching modes in the next five years in response to the ever-changing situations in the implementation of the 2003 convention, the diverse needs in ICH safeguarding training from the state parties and the uncertainties and inconveniences caused by epidemic control measures.

For balance, CRIHAP will take a comprehensive and balanced approach in designing ICH safeguarding capacity-building training workshops that best fit the themes and target audiences of the training classes.

For inclusiveness, CRIHAP will make its international training programs as inclusive as possible, benefiting people from the whole Asia-Pacific region, especially those from small-island states, as well as youth and women. For sustainability, CRIHAP will keep its international training running smoothly and contribute to the sustainable development of ICH safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific region as epidemic control becomes the new normal.