Guided by the Hope’s philosophy that focuses on cultural inheritance, aesthetic cultivation and youth empowerment, Hope has launched a series of in-country cultural study tours recently for 50+ adults, with Suzhou and Jingdezhen as first two stops in May.
Centering on the Hope’s core objective of promoting its 50+ high-quality traditional culture promotion projects, the activities integrate on-site exploration, expert dialogue and aesthetic experience. The Suzhou tour features master salons, in-depth visits to the Six Arts Museum and immersive tours of Lili Ancient Town, while the Jingdezhen journey includes elegant porcelain tea banquets, exchanges with ceramic experts, and field studies at Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum and Imperial Kiln Museum guided by experts.
I. Suzhou Tour : Master Salon in Six Arts Museum
As an important part of Hope’s 50+ activities, the Suzhou tour takes folk craft inheritance and Sino=US culture exchanges as the core, combines master salon and ancient town cultural tour, and practices Hope’s educational concept of “perceiving tradition in practice and spreading culture through experience”, helping 20 guests build solid aesthetic and cultural cognition of Jiangnan folk art and American diversified culture.
On the first day of the activity, all audiences gathered at the Six Arts Museum in Lili Ancient Town to launch a master salon tailor-made for the Hope 50+ cultural immersion tour. Ms. Francie Chemnick, Director of International Programs, Professional and Continuing Education, University of San Diego, a partner university for Hope’s 50+ projects, was invited to introduce the university, the city and the local culture. She also briefed audience on the connotation, philosophy and practical implementation of Hope’s future US 50+ Study Tour. She illustrated how the U.S. 50+ program empowers youth cross-cultural cognition, aesthetic cultivation and global vision building through diversified offline immersion experiences, and shared mature operational models and innovative promotion concepts.
Meanwhile, Co-founder of Six Arts Museum Ms. Liu was invited to deliver keynote speeches to introduce the museum. Based on the museum’s collection of over 40,000 folk antiques and its founder’s American origin, Ms. Liu interpreted the aesthetic connotation and craftsmanship essence of Ming and Qing furniture, traditional embroidery, ancient folk ornaments and other intangible cultural heritage works.
Subsequently, all participants visited the exhibition halls of the Six Arts Museum. As a high-quality practical base for Hope’s cultural education and 50+ project implementation, the museum gathers centuries-old Jiangnan folk art treasures. Under the guidance of professionals, members appreciated ancient wooden doors and windows, traditional clay sculptures, hand-woven bamboo articles and other fine works up close, deeply feeling the down-to-earth humanistic charm of folk craftsmanship, and accumulating rich material support for the subsequent implementation and popularization of Hope’s study tour program both at home and abroad.
The Suzhou tour ended with a walking tour in Lili Ancient Town. Bluestone lanes, riverside ancient dwellings and ancient stone bridges interpret the unique charm of Jiangnan water town culture. Members integrated the folk artifact knowledge learned from the museum and salon with the living ancient town culture.
II. Jingdezhen tour: Tea-Porcelain Aesthetics & Expert Dialogue Boosting Hope’s 50+ Cultural Brand Building
Following the Suzhou folk craft study tour, a group of Hope’s clients moved to Jingdezhen, the millennium porcelain capital, to carry out another domestic study tour for 50+. Centering on the core of Chinese porcelain culture inheritance, the 3-day journey adopts the innovative form of “tea banquet aesthetic experience + expert in-depth dialogue + museum professional research”.
The activity kicked off with an exclusive customized porcelain tea banquet, a characteristic aesthetic experience privately developed for Hope’s clients. With fine teas matched with handmade porcelain tea sets of different glaze colors and shapes, members experienced the integrated aesthetic charm of tea and porcelain in an elegant artistic atmosphere. This unique immersive experience is an innovative practice of Hope’s 50+ cultural study tour program.
In the interactive session, audiences actively put forward questions around ceramic culture inheritance and project innovation. The experts gave targeted answers, helping the team optimize the promotion ideas of traditional ceramic culture as well as introduced how to appreciate the beauty and value of the ceramic products. This has enhanced the importance of travelling with somebody who has similar taste and hobby.
With solid theoretical accumulation, the group successively visited two core ceramic museums to carry out project-based research. The first stop was Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum, a key practical research base of Hope’s cultural projects. The museum’s complete chronological exhibition of pottery and porcelain from the Neolithic Age to modern times allows members to comprehensively sort out the evolution of Chinese ceramic craftsmanship, appreciate the artistic value of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain, Ming and Qing famille rose and five-color porcelain.
Museum visits in Imperial Kiln Museum and Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum
The second stop was Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum, built on the ruins of the ancient royal kiln factory. Through viewing unearthed imperial porcelain fragments, restored royal fine wares and real kiln site relics, members deeply understood the craftsmanship and production system of ancient official kilns. The in-depth study of royal porcelain culture has completed the supplement of high-end traditional craft content for the tour.
III. Summary
Both tours laid a good foundation of what type of study tour Hope is organizing for 50+ adults and help to build an attractive community of people with similar interests and hobbies who may travel together in the future to both domestic and overseas destinations.
