Mazu merchandise products appeared at the 17th China (Putian) Straits Art Fair.
The merchandise specially designed by Taiwan compatriots for the Mazu patrol safety event was very popular.
All media reporter, Chen Peida, correspondent, Xu Shuangping, text/picture
With the change of people’s travel habits and tourism concepts, merchandise products with local characteristics are very popular. Meizhou Island has launched unique cultural and creative products around Mazu Culture Super IP, created a new scene of cultural tourism consumption, enriched the new connotation of global tourism, and made merchandise a carrier of living inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, a breakthrough point for enhancing cross-strait exchanges, and an engine for empowering cultural tourism development.
Yi embroidery of Mazu patterns, dolls of Mazu images, T-shirts of Mazu elements… At the 17th China (Putian) Strait Art Fair held recently, the outstanding works of the 2023 "Mazu Cup" merchandise design competition and various Mazu merchandise products were showcased, attracting everyone’s attention and widely praised by all walks of life.
This is Meizhou Island Mazu merchandise products for 7 consecutive years at the Expo, has become a major attraction, a highlight of the Expo.
In recent years, Meizhou Island has actively excavated the connotation of Mazu culture, expanded the expression of merchandise products, accelerated the Mazu-themed merchandise products to meet the "tide", iterative upgrades, and break the "circle", so that Mazu merchandise products not only inherit Mazu culture, but also drive consumption enthusiasm, and better empower the high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry.
Join hands for integrated development
This year’s China (Putian) Straits Art Fair has a special Mazu Pavilion at the main venue of the Putian Arts and Crafts City Exhibition Center, which is the first time in the history of the fair.
Entering the Mazu Pavilion, large to Mazu statues, small to daily necessities such as change bags, keychains, mobile phone cases, and various pendants and ornaments, all kinds of Mazu merchandise products in the exhibition area are designed with novel and creative ideas. Fashion and classical collide here, creating brilliant sparks, showing the unique charm of Mazu culture.
Nearly 200 pieces of fine arts and crafts and merchandise products by more than a dozen arts and crafts masters are on display, showing the unique craftsmanship of Putian and showing the charm of Mazu culture. The exhibition hall is also carefully arranged with ceramics, jade, wood carving, gold and silver, nine treasure casting and carving, clothing, salt carving, seal carving, Chinese painting and other exhibition areas, which are cleverly integrated with Mazu culture and bring a visual feast to the audience.
In recent years, the Meizhou Island Management Committee has actively carried out merchandise product development in combination with Mazu culture, established Meizhou Island Tourism Service Company, focusing on themes such as "Come to Meizhou for vacation, bring home safely", "Mazu Holy Land, Beautiful Meizhou", and the World Mazu Culture Forum. Integrating elements such as Mazu culture, folk customs, and marine culture, it has designed and developed five categories: food taste, painting life, treasure beauty, petal incense, and sea charm. Since the launch of merchandise work in 2015, the cooperation model of "independent + cooperation", the research and development model of "internal + introduction", and the sales model of "online + offline" and "retail + group buying" have achieved certain results. In the past 10 years, the total number of designed products has reached more than 1,100.
The company adheres to the concept of "promoting products first and promoting brands", actively organizes and participates in various exhibitions, promotions, and merchandise competitions, vigorously promotes Mazu series merchandise products, and wins many awards. Among them, Mazu silk people and other 4 products won the title of "Fujian Good Li" 100 Best Works, and won the Best Creative Product Award of the 9th Western China Cultural Industry Expo; Mazu silk people also won the city’s "Top Ten Tourism Goods", and Mazu Bless Notebook and other 5 products won the city’s "Exquisite Tourism Goods".
Meizhou Island not only actively explores the connotation of Mazu culture internally, but also actively expands the expression of merchandise products externally. In the Mazu merchandise exhibition hall, a series of joint merchandise products such as Chuxiong Yi Embroidery, Dehua Ceramics, and Silver Jewelry are displayed. Among them, several Mazu merchandise products made by Yi embroidery skills attract special attention. Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture Yi Embroidery, as an invited work outside the province, "Meet Chuxiong – Traditional Pattern Series" "Green Feather Wizard – Green Peacock Pattern Series" "Fulai Yungo – Intangible Cultural Heritage Joint Series" theme Yi embroidery products made a wonderful appearance at the exhibition. Chuxiong Yi embroidery is a dazzling and wonderful flower in the colorful national cultural treasure house of Chuxiong Prefecture. It is famous at home and abroad for its exquisite composition, bold color scheme, flexible techniques, unique craftsmanship and different styles. It can be called "art at the fingertips". In November 2014, Yi clothing with Yi embroidery as the main expression method was included in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage with the approval of the State Council.
Mountains and seas are in love, walking hand in hand. The two intangible cultural heritage projects are the essence of national culture accumulated by the Chinese nation over thousands of years. When "Chuxiong Yi Embroidery" met "Mazu Culture", the cooperation fields between the two places continued to expand and the cooperation projects continued to increase, forming a vivid situation of "mountains and seas join hands, the two places walk together, government and enterprise cooperation, and the future is promising".
Enhance cross-strait exchanges
Mazu culture, as a common folk belief of the people in Taiwan, integrates it into merchandise products, highlights its own cultural characteristics and shows its unique charm. With the release of the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Supporting Fujian to Explore a New Road for the Integrated Development of the Two Straits and Build a Demonstration Zone for the Integrated Development of the Two Straits", cross-strait merchandise industry exchanges will also see great development.
In the 2023 cross-strait compatriots escorting Meizhou Mazu Golden Body Tour Putian held not long ago, the cross-strait merchandise market was held simultaneously in Beigao Town Gold Jewelry Cultural Center, China Mazu Cultural Exchange Association, Municipal Sports Center and other places, and a series of Mazu-themed merchandise products were widely loved in the patrol activities.
Huang Shenghong, from Tainan, Taiwan, has been living on the mainland for more than 20 years. Five years ago, he started to design and develop Mazu merchandise products in Baishatun, Taiwan. He has frequent contact with the Mazu Ancestral Temple in Meizhou, learning from each other in the development, design and promotion of merchandise products. For this Mazu Golden Body Tour to Putian, Huang Shenghong specially designed a handbag of "Meizhou Mazu Tour". "The admiration and love for Mazu on both sides of the strait are the same. In the future, we will continue to design more merchandise products of Mazu culture to promote and promote Mazu culture," Huang Shenghong said.
Mazu culture is one of the important links connecting people on both sides of the strait. Through Mazu merchandise works, people on both sides of the strait can further deepen their understanding and understanding of Mazu culture, and promote cross-strait cultural exchanges and folk interactions. The development of Mazu merchandise works has also brought new opportunities for cross-strait exchanges. Tourism, handicrafts, food and other products derived from Mazu culture are favored by people on both sides of the strait. The development and sales of these merchandise products not only drive the development of the local economy, but also provide opportunities for cooperation between enterprises on both sides of the strait. Many Taiwanese enterprises have integrated Mazu cultural elements into product design, and Mazu merchandise works have become an important bridge connecting enterprises on both sides of the strait.
Living inheritance intangible cultural heritage
Mazu culture is a treasure of China’s excellent traditional culture. It has been passed down for thousands of years and has been new for a long time. It embodies the core ideas, humanistic spirit and fine virtues of Chinese traditional culture. How can this "world intangible cultural heritage" blow up the "national tide" and attract young people? Meizhou Island cooperates with universities and other universities to make Mazu culture "alive" and Mazu merchandise "tide".
In May this year, the 2023 "Mazu Cup" merchandise product design competition jointly organized by the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the Communication University of China, and the Putian Municipal People’s Government, and jointly organized by Putian University, the Putian Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, the Meizhou Island National Tourism Resort Management Committee, and the Advertising School of the Communication University of China was launched at Putian University. The competition, with the theme of "Fujian Mazu · Fuyou Four Seas", focused on crafts, incense culture, merchandise food packaging, Meizhou women’s clothing, luggage, gold, silver and copper jewelry, and digital products, to solicit outstanding merchandise designs that can be implemented and promoted globally. All kinds of Chinese and foreign enterprises, professional institutions, school teachers and students, designers, admirers of Mazu, and enterprises in the development and transformation of products in the middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain actively participate in the design, research and development, and production, presenting the effect of "government-enterprise-school" multi-party linkage.
Yu Minghua, a professor at the Mazu Cultural Research Institute of Putian University, said that to promote the development of Mazu culture, it is necessary to accelerate the development of key industries such as arts and crafts, food, and emerging industrial materials, build a modern industrial system with high-quality development, create a unique Mazu logo through merchandise products, and enhance the success of related products in the global market.
In recent years, Meizhou Island has been based on the concept of "culture +", implemented innovation-driven, highlighted new highlights and displayed new characteristics. Using the concept of "culture + tourism" and "culture + creativity", and taking Mazu culture as the research and development foundation, it fully integrates island tourism and Mazu culture. The positioning of merchandise products has changed from the original "flowering everywhere" to "moon, bright and sparse", focusing on the research and development of core products and elite products, and creating a "must-bring" to Meizhou. At the same time, relying on a multi-faceted publicity platform, it will fully display the cultural and creative products of Meizhou Island and Mazu Ping An Gift to enhance brand influence.
The relevant person in charge of the Meizhou Island Management Committee said that it will give full play to the spirit of Mazu "Lide, Do Good, Great Love" and Mazu’s humanistic charm deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, deeply study the essence of Mazu culture, excavate the unique customs and folk feelings of Meizhou, integrate the characteristics of marine culture, and upgrade the merchandise products to a new level.
