When stumbling upon cute Mazu-themed blind boxes, people from home and abroad can easily discover that Chinese youths are reinterpreting traditional Chinese cultural heritage through their own lens.
This blind box series, whose sales have already exceeded 100 million yuan, was a China-chic product co-developed by the Meizhou Mazu Ancestral Temple and a Shanghai-based cultural creative firm.
Inspired by legends about nine auspicious artifacts and tokens of Mazu, the most influential sea goddess in China, the designers created five different but adorable figures representing wealth, career, academic success, safety and wish-making, respectively.
As each blind box contains a mini "holy cup", buyers, usually young people, can enjoy the thrill of opening the boxes, which connects the millennia-old Mazu belief and customs with daily life.
Some young buyers bought the Mazu blind boxes purely for their exquisite designs, but later came to learn about Mazu culture, making the blind boxes a "window" into Mazu culture, said Chen Lin, a staff member of the Meizhou Mazu Ancestral Temple on Meizhou Island in Putian City, Fujian Province.
On Meizhou Island, there are other trendy ways for young people to acquaint themselves with Mazu culture, including taking travel photos in traditional Mazu attire, watching Mazu-themed dramas and wandering through local streets together with non-player characters.
Apart from these, music students at Putian University attend the Mazu Festival performances twice a year, basking in melodies from ancient Chinese chime bells that celebrate the virtue, kindness and great love of Mazu.
At the Mazu culture digital laboratory of Putian University, young scholars are currently building a digital archive of global Mazu temples and palaces to support related academic research and better preserve the intangible cultural heritage.
Currently, young people in China are revitalizing the country's vast traditional cultural heritage in ways that are more appealing, more convenient and more immersive. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
