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“Music crosses all language barriers,” Katie Harrington, Delta Cultural Center director, said Monday as the center played host for a reception to seven visiting cultural heritage experts from China’s Sichuan Province.
The visitors are participants in the Southwest Minorities Cultural Heritage Project through the Arkansas Global Programs of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The program is funded through the U.S. State Department.
They are participating in a long-term training sessions to help preserve the cultural heritage of Tibetan, Qiang, and Yi cultures of the Sichuan Province in the regions of A Ba, which is home of the panda bears. Jiuzhaigou in Northern Sichuan, Ganzi in western Sichuan and Liangshan in southern Sichuan are also targeted areas.
The group was able to strap on some headphones at the DCC and immerse themselves in the musical culture of the Arkansas Delta. Johnnie Billington, a Mississippi blues man, entertained the visitors with some blues tunes.
He first told them that the blues was “about home, the land and the place closest to your heart.”
Harrington visited China during the fall of 2008 as a participant in the UALR exchange program and said that several culture experts from China applied for the program. She said the response was great and the participants were highly interested in the culture of the area.
Most of the experts from China are involved in upgrading and amending museum systems in their homeland and want to see how sites present preserve and develop tourism and how culture is presented to the public.
Chen Xuezhi wants to communicate cultural preservation to young people.
Many have individual projects in China, such as Tang Liang, who is a department director and vice curator of the Liangshan Yi People Aut. Prefecture Museum.
He is trying to preserve the Bo Shi Wa Hei Cliff paintings, An Ning River Da Xi Mu tomb and his participation in the Third National Relics Survey Project at the museum. Wang Yan is from an area of Tibet that has seen a large influx of visitors. The Tibetan cultural has shifted from agriculture to tourism, causing the local lifestyle to change dramatically.
The scholars are staying with host families who also have exposed the group to the special southern hospitality that Helena and Phillips County offer.
Arkansas training partners in the project include the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and U.S. cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian.
The majority of the training in which the scholars participate will be centered over a two-week period at museums in downtown Little Rock, Helena-West Helena and Washington D.C.
“Music crosses all language barriers,” Katie Harrington, Delta Cultural Center director, said Monday as the center played host for a reception to seven visiting cultural heritage experts from China’s Sichuan Province.
The visitors are participants in the Southwest Minorities Cultural Heritage Project through the Arkansas Global Programs of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The program is funded through the U.S. State Department.
They are participating in a long-term training sessions to help preserve the cultural heritage of Tibetan, Qiang, and Yi cultures of the Sichuan Province in the regions of A Ba, which is home of the panda bears. Jiuzhaigou in Northern Sichuan, Ganzi in western Sichuan and Liangshan in southern Sichuan are also targeted areas.
The group was able to strap on some headphones at the DCC and immerse themselves in the musical culture of the Arkansas Delta. Johnnie Billington, a Mississippi blues man, entertained the visitors with some blues tunes.
He first told them that the blues was “about home, the land and the place closest to your heart.”
Harrington visited China during the fall of 2008 as a participant in the UALR exchange program and said that several culture experts from China applied for the program. She said the response was great and the participants were highly interested in the culture of the area.
Most of the experts from China are involved in upgrading and amending museum systems in their homeland and want to see how sites present preserve and develop tourism and how culture is presented to the public.
Chen Xuezhi wants to communicate cultural preservation to young people.
Many have individual projects in China, such as Tang Liang, who is a department director and vice curator of the Liangshan Yi People Aut. Prefecture Museum.
He is trying to preserve the Bo Shi Wa Hei Cliff paintings, An Ning River Da Xi Mu tomb and his participation in the Third National Relics Survey Project at the museum. Wang Yan is from an area of Tibet that has seen a large influx of visitors. The Tibetan cultural has shifted from agriculture to tourism, causing the local lifestyle to change dramatically.
The scholars are staying with host families who also have exposed the group to the special southern hospitality that Helena and Phillips County offer.
Arkansas training partners in the project include the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and U.S. cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian.
The majority of the training in which the scholars participate will be centered over a two-week period at museums in downtown Little Rock, Helena-West Helena and Washington D.C.
