THE Pudong New Area has much more to offer than skyscrapers, fancy shopping malls and great views of the city.

The district boasts 48 intangible culture heritage projects — the most in Shanghai. They are largely scattered about in suburban areas, making them somewhat more difficult to find. Pudong Culture Heritage Exhibition Hall at the Pudong Culture and the Arts Guidance Center has been built to spread awareness of these projects.

“Pudong is one of the city’s more international districts, but it retains various local customs and arts. We hope this center allows people to learn more about local culture so that it can be preserved,” says Wang Xichang, the center’s director.

The center showcases all the projects through pictures and with brief introductions since many are related to singing and cuisine.

“Periodically we will hold events to invite artists to demonstrate their skills,” Wang adds. “We also have training programs and all of them for free.”

Pudong New Area Culture and the Arts Guidance Center

Address: 324 Yingchun Rd

Tel: 2080-6607

Website: www.pdqyg.com

Sanlin Dragon Dance

During Chinese Lunar New Year and other festivals, Chinese around the world often celebrate with dragon and lion dances. Without this undulating dance, many consider such festivals incomplete.

Sanlin Town is famous for its dragon dancers, who are considered by many to be the best in China. They also tour internationally.

Long red decorative fabric is carried on bamboo poles by the dragon dancers while they rehearse for long hours to coordinate and synchronize their movements so the dragon appears to move in waves.

Dragons are a symbol of great power in China as seen by their use by emperors. While Westerners generally regard dragons as evil, Chinese consider them benevolent, even playful, as they bring good fortune and rain. Chinese also believe dragons control the waters and the wind. The mythological animal has been revered for thousands of years and Chinese people are also known as descendants of the dragon.

The dragon dance originated in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) as part of a prayer for rain. The Sanlin dragon dance dates back to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1268) dynasties although it became more popular in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Today Sanlin dragon dances are often performed in public squares and outside cultural venues across China and internationally.

The dance combines grace, athleticism, martial arts, acrobatics and drama.

“Sanlin is one of the founders of the modern dragon dance,” says Lu Dajie, founder of the Sanlin Dragon and Lion Dance Troupe.

Lu and his team are keen to change the perception in some foreign countries that dragons represent evil.

“We have an obligation to inform them that a dragon is not some cult culture or fierce, horrible monster,” he says.

The Sanlin team has performed in Europe and Southeast Asia and at national celebrations such as the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese mainland rule in 1997.

Dockers’ Work Songs (Matou haozi)

Dressed in ragged clothes and with a hand towel on their shoulders, the singers groan, troll, hum or chant simple songs containing powerful lyrics.

They sing the matou haozi or dockers’ work songs, a style known for strong beats once popular among the dockers and coolies who toiled on the docks along the Huangpu River in the late 19th century.

Senior folk artists from the Tangqiao Folk Arts Troupe are reviving the songs by performing publicly.

“It’s a record of history, which should be kept and carried forward,” says Wang Xibao, the art troupe’s deputy director who also initiated the preservation project of the dockers’ work songs in 2005.

Matou haozi is now not only intangible cultural heritage in Pudong but listed as a national cultural heritage.

Before 1949, Shanghai port had a 10.7-kilometer-long coastline with 79 berths, among which 26 could handle more than 10,000 tons of cargo annually.

In order to keep up with rapid expansion, the loading and hauling of the heavy goods could only be done with the help of dockworkers.

Dockers needed to work in coordination with each other to haul heavy goods. The workers created songs with strong beats, easy lyrics and simple rhythms to lift their spirits as they worked. The songs helped them work in sync and gave them a chance to blow off some steam.

In one song the lyrics go: “A pole is carried by us; heavy life loads fall on our shoulders; marching in sync and acting like one man, we support ourselves by hard work.”

Ship Modeling

Over the past 30 years, Zhang Yuqi has made thousands of ship models, mostly ancient Chinese vessels.

The 58-year-old’s efforts have been widely recognized. During World Expo Shanghai 2010, Zhang was invited to display six ancient Chinese ship models at the China State Shipbuilding Corporation Pavilion.

Zhang says authenticity is crucial and all of his works are based on solid research.

“I have to do some other plastic assemblies or ship models to make a living but I will never give up on ancient ship modeling,” he says. “Fewer and fewer people participate in this kind of ship modeling, thus if no one insists on doing it, this culture might vanish.”

Stove Paintings

The history of stove paintings in Pudong dates back about 1200 years. While fewer families use these homemade stoves today, those who do like to have them painted like in the past.

In ancient China, the kitchen god was the most important as it protected the hearth and family. People often painted pictures on their stove to pray for a bumper harvest and pay respect to the great kitchen god. The paintings are usually classified into six types: flowers and plants, animals, fortune god, historical stories, landscapes and lacy decoration. Blessings like “surplus year after year” were often included in the paintings.

Qian Wanlong soy sauce

Qian Wanlong is a venerable brand of “handmade,” naturally fermented soy sauce that dates back to 1880. Its 400 vintage fermenting urns have been moved to a larger factory in Zhangjiang, Pudong.

Each of the urns produces around one ton each year.

No preservatives are added and it takes at least six months to make the sauce. It uses a natural brewing process involving salted water, wheat, soybeans and mold. After fermentation, it’s refined and bottled.

The brand is famous for its “12 steps.” These include selecting prime soy beans, blending wheat, exposing beans to sunlight to form mold, and fermenting them in urns for as long as 10 months. Oil is also extracted in an old-fashioned press.