Exploring New Scenes of Cultural Consumption in Beijing's Dongcheng District

The Qianmen area of Dongcheng District is rich in Beijing culture, which is one of the business cards of the old Beijing culture, and is now attracting many consumers to explore new scenes of cultural consumption.On 19th November, the reporter visited the new scenes of cultural consumption in Dongcheng District during the media activity held in Dongcheng District.

In recent years, Dongcheng District adheres to the principle of ‘Chongwen and strive to be the first’, and promotes the integration of culture, business and tourism with a big pattern planning, multi-angle innovation, and high quality, relying on abundant cultural and tourism resources, innovatively creates a new brand of cultural and tourism, a new scene, and a new product, and promotes the integration of cultural and tourism in the direction of experiencing, branding, scenario, and digital upgrading.

In the warm Baobao Youth Bookstore in Nanxiaoshun Hutong, young people can not only read and communicate with each other, but also experience folk arts and crafts.On 19 November, Lv Tiezhi, vice chairman and secretary-general of Dongcheng Literature Federation's Folk Arts and Crafts Association, led readers in an immersive learning experience to experience Beijing's Zayan kite-making skills. In the hands of the creators, the paper becomes a soaring phoenix, and various colours of paint depict the vitality of the kite, which eventually becomes a paper kite that can fly in the sky, and the unique charm of folk arts and culture is quietly displayed in one stroke, one pull and one tug.

On 19th November, Dongcheng District hosted the 2024 ‘Media Dongcheng Tour - Winter Elegant Gathering’, in which a large number of media went into the Youth Bookstore to experience the non-heritage culture. 

The practice of transforming a special bookstore into a ‘folk art base’ began in 2023 when Dongcheng District in Beijing was named a national pilot project for the protection and promotion of folk art copyright. The Dongcheng District, in collaboration with China Youth Daily, plans to launch a live broadcasting programme for Dongcheng District folk artists in the Youth Bookstore, and set up a ‘Dongcheng District Folk Literature and Art Copyright Protection and Promotion Exhibition Space’ in the Youth Bookstore, which will provide folk artists with a place to exchange knowledge about the history and culture of folk literature and art, display their skills, interact with each other, and provide copyright services. In addition, the Youth Bookstore will regularly organise events and activities to promote folk arts and culture.

In addition, the Youth Bookstore will regularly carry out live broadcasting activities on the theme of folk arts and culture, strengthen the external display of folk arts and culture, popularise the knowledge of copyright protection, help the innovative development and creative transformation of folk arts and culture, and further activate the value of the copyright of folk arts and culture.

An immersive Beijing opera ‘Beijing Auction’ is being staged at the Pigment Club. In this theatre, the audience can see the shadow of Lao She's classic works, such as ‘The Fourth Generation’, ‘Camel's Nest’, ‘The Teahouse’, ‘Longshougou’, etc. This is the first time that ‘There is a theatre in the Hall’. This is the innovative attempt of the ‘play in the hall’, the whole performance simulated a real auction, the audience to the hall ‘customer’ identity immersed in it, and the role of the play communication and interaction, to promote the development of the auction plot, in order to ‘melting play In the new form of ‘blending theatre with scenery, and theatre with scenery’, the audience is led to integrate into the fireworks of the people of the city and experience the rituals and customs of old Beijing.

This is not the only interesting thing about the Guild Hall. In recent years, Dongcheng District District has been innovatively exploring the system and mechanism of cultural vitality of the guilds, and through resource sharing, cultural integration, and value creation, the guilds have been reproduced in the ancient style of ‘speaking their native language, tasting their native food, and listening to their native theatre’. Qianmen District, a number of guilds through the ‘one guild, one policy’ revitalisation of the use of new life, the content of each has its own unique characteristics. For example, Shaozhou Guild Hall with tea culture out of the circle, where visitors enjoy tea and orchids, not happy; Shidai Guild Hall new unveiling, becoming a good window for local culture to the outside world.

The Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, the world's first open-plan hutong courtyard hotel, has also recently made a spectacular debut, becoming a new landmark in the old city. Since its opening, the hotel has hosted ambassadors from many countries and organised a number of heavyweight events one after another.

According to the report, Dongcheng District will also promote ‘Chongwen and compete for the first’ at full speed in the future, activate the deep and lasting cultural power, prosperous and colourful folk arts and culture, ignite the dynamic and strong consumption kinetic energy, write the ‘Dongcheng answer sheet’ of the integrated development of culture, business and tourism.