Qingdao Daily/Guanhai News Report — On October 16, 2025, the 10th China International Copyright Expo grandly opened at the Qingdao International Convention and Exhibition Center, with the 4th Qingdao Handmade Crafts Festival 2025 running concurrently. Themed "Digital-Smart New Handmade Crafts, Strong Industrial Linkage, and New Communication of 'China Chic'," this year's festival created an immersive cultural feast integrating traditional crafts, modern design, and digital technology within a 700-square-meter exhibition area titled "Shandong Handmade · A Gift from Qingdao."
In recent years, Qingdao has been dedicated to building the cultural brand "Shandong Handmade · A Gift from Qingdao" by implementing the "Shandong Handmade Crafts" project. Building on the success of the past three editions, this year's festival leverages the national platform of the 10th China International Copyright Expo to showcase the unique charm of "Shandong Handmade · A Gift from Qingdao" to a national and global audience.
Copyright Empowerment Activates Innovation Genes
Copyright protection injects strong momentum into the high-quality development of the handicrafts industry. The on-site handicrafts and copyright integration zone featured well-known copyrighted IPs such as Tsingtao Beer Museum's cultural and creative products, "Qingqingxia," "Lang Li Ge Lang," and "The 24 Solar Terms Elves," as well as innovative copyright-holding enterprises in traditional handicraft fields like Dianbei Shijia.
Tsingtao Beer's cultural and creative products span multiple categories including food, skincare, and toys, covering diverse areas like office supplies, home goods, and beauty products, skillfully blending classic beer culture with modern creative design. Ji Zhengqiang, General Manager of Qingdao Dianbei Shijia Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., stated, "We have established a complete original design system around the Luodian (mother-of-pearl inlay) technique, with each piece having its own copyright registration. We have also digitally archived traditional patterns to protect our design achievements through an original pattern database. In this way, Luodian is not just a craft but a replicable and communicable cultural asset." Their practice demonstrates that copyright not only stimulates the innovative vitality of cultural creations but is also increasingly becoming a core competitiveness for businesses to expand their markets.
Digital Intelligence Integration Revitalizes Traditional Crafts
Centering on the brand "Shandong Handmade · A Gift from Qingdao," this year's festival exhibition systematically presented innovations in digital transformation, lifestyle integration, and cultural exports for handcrafted products, offering visitors a multidimensional viewing experience.
The "Digital Intelligence Empowers, Creativity Leads" section became a focal point of the event. Selected works from the "2nd Handmade Industry Innovation Cases and Emerging Enterprises" and the "Call for Excellent Cultural and Creative Products for the 4th Handmade Crafts Festival 2025" fully demonstrated how innovation empowers traditional crafts and showcased Qingdao's achievements in digital transformation, industrial development, and market-oriented operations within the handicrafts industry. Data maps illustrating the "culture going global" initiative of these crafts vividly presented the international development of Qingdao's handicraft enterprises.
Immersive Experience Allows Handcrafts to Naturally Blend into Life Scenarios
The exhibition featured over 50 types of distinctive products, including traditional handicrafts, modern cultural creations, and copyrighted IPs. It brought together characteristic Qingdao crafts like shell carving, Wanggezhuang steamed buns, Ruoqi jewelry, Pingdu straw weaving, Qianfeng hats, and Jimo hoodies, as well as specialty products from the nine provinces (and autonomous regions) along the Yellow River and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries. Artisans demonstrated skills such as Laoshan pan-fried tea, Song-style tea-whisking, Qi embroidery, Ningxia hemp weaving, and duet performances of the Guqin and Xiao, allowing visitors to experience the charm of traditional culture up close.
Additionally, a special immersive exhibition area, "Aesthetics of Life · Handcraft Home," was set up. Here, handcrafted items like tie-dye, shell carvings, Jimo hoodies, and Pingdu straw weaving were naturally integrated into a realistic home setting, conveying the concept that handcrafted products are "wearable, usable, and part of daily life."
Yellow River Culture Exhibition Gathers Masterpieces from Nine Provinces (and Regions)
The on-site exhibition of research findings, themed "'Encountering the Sea Along the Yellow River' - A Thematic Research Project on the Traditional Cultures of the Nine Provinces and Regions Along the Yellow River," showcased representative handcrafted masterpieces from Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and other areas along the Yellow River. Visitors could closely admire the artistic treasures nurtured by the Yellow River civilization.
The "Encountering the Sea Along the Yellow River" research project was launched in June 2025 and has completed its initial investigations of the upper and parts of the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Through systematic fieldwork, digital recording, and cross-regional dialogues, the initiative aims to clarify the current state of intangible cultural heritage preservation in the Yellow River basin, strengthen cultural IPs, and extract valuable experience. This provides academic and practical pathways for Qingdao to enhance the influence of the "Shandong Handmade · A Gift from Qingdao" brand and shape a distinctive Yellow River cultural identity.
Successfully held for four consecutive years, the Qingdao Handmade Crafts Festival has become a vital platform for promoting innovation in the handicrafts industry and fostering cultural exchange. Through the deep integration of digital technology and traditional craftsmanship, the profound fusion of life aesthetics and cultural heritage, and the interplay of local characteristics and an international perspective, this year's festival presented a journey of craftsmanship that transcends time and space, injecting new vitality into the innovative development of the handicraft industry.
Editor: Yuan Ruichen
