Taicang named hometown of Chinese folk culture, art

With sizhu or traditional stringed and woodwind instruments, Taicang in Jiangsu province was recently named as Hometown of Chinese Folk Culture and Art of 2018 to 2020 by China's Minstry of Culture and Tourism.

Starting from 2008, Taicang has won the title for many consecutive years thanks to the sizhu.

Sizhu, a cultural symbol of Taicang, enjoys great popularity in the city and was included in the list of the first group of national intangible cultural heritages in 2006.

Over the past few years, Taicang has organized numerous intra-city sizhu performances and competitions and the city's sizhu art troupes have also conducted exchanges in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, Italy and France.

In addition, the Chinese city has also ramped up its efforts to nurture more performance groups of the traditional stringed and woodwind instruments and establish protection bases for sizhu in a bid to further promote the instruments' social influence.