The past several years also are characterized by the increasing interdependence of intangible cultural heritage protection and poverty alleviation, thanks to the China Ministry of Culture's initiative to bring intangible cultural heritage back into people’s daily lives.

In 2015, the Ministries of Culture and Education launched a research and training program for inheritors of intangible cultural heritage. Up to now, nearly 48,000 inheritors have graduated from the program and increased their capabilities.

Since March 2016, supported by the Ministry of Culture, 10 traditional cultural and art work stations have been gradually set up across the country to promote traditional crafts. These include embroidery, wood sculpture and lacquer art. More than 1,000 kinds of products have so far been developed at these stations and put on the market, which has greatly promoted the innovative transformation of traditional crafts.

Due to all these effective measures taken in recent years, culture has become an integral part of targeted poverty alleviation. During this year's two sessions, Yang Changqin, a NPC deputy from Southwest China's Guizhou province, told the story of how protecting intangible culture heritage has helped lift local people out of poverty.

The 27-year-old is a provincial-level inheritor of bamboo weaving, and has practiced the art for 10 years. To help local bamboo farmers, in 2014 she began to offer bamboo weaving training courses in her hometown and since then nearly 1,000 poor locals have signed up for the courses. Now, Yang's bamboo weaving company has created job opportunities for over 20 local women and its annual sales have exceeded 3 million yuan ($473,000).