The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Wednesday inscribed Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of the traditional new year, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The decision was made during the 19th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, taking place in Paraguay from Dec. 2 to 7. The committee recognized the festival for its wide array of rituals and unique cultural elements that engage all of Chinese society.
UNESCO highlighted that the Spring Festival, marking the start of the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year, involves various social practices, including prayers for good fortune and family reunions. It also features activities planned by elders and festive public events organized by communities.
According to UNESCO's documentation, the traditional knowledge and customs associated with the Spring Festival are passed down informally within families and communities, as well as formally through the education system. Craftsmanship and artistic skills related to the festival are transmitted through apprenticeships, promoting family values, social cohesion, and peace, while providing a sense of cultural identity.
With this addition, China now has 44 cultural elements or practices recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, falls on the first day of the first month in the lunar calendar and has been China's most important festival for centuries, bringing families together over many generations.
It is still an annual highlight, with people carrying on the tradition of hanging red lanterns, setting off fireworks and fixing red scrolls with rhyming phrases on their doors, hoping this will ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.
UNESCO inscribes Spring Festival on intangible cultural heritage list
The key scientific infrastructure to generate attosecond laser, which started construction on Friday in Dongguan City, south China's Guangdong Province, will boost China's innovation ability in ultrafast optics field, said scientists.
The Advanced Attosecond Laser Infrastructure (AALI), including facilities in Dongguan and Xi'an City in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is being built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The AALI project is planned to set up 10 beamlines covering wavelengths in extreme ultraviolet, soft X-ray and terahertz radiation, along with 22 research terminals, forming a comprehensive attosecond science facility in the next five years, according to the Institute of Physics (IOP) of the CAS.
AALI demands driving lasers with exceptional stability and reliability, representing the pinnacle of ultrafast laser technology, thus facing numerous technical challenges.
To facilitate the smooth construction and operation of the AALI, the project has launched an innovation cluster for the high-performance laser industry. The initial members include 40 institutions, comprising 27 laser-related enterprises, 10 universities, and three research institutes. These entities are collaboratively working on establishing test platforms, streamlining supply chains, and developing industrial clusters to better integrate resources and advance the growth of related industries.
"We not only rely on the IOP (of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), but also tackle problems by working together with relevant scientific research institutes and other platform builders. After two years of effort, our team now has more than 100 members. With the development of this infrastructure, I believe it will bring more and more practical applications, including those promoting the development of related industries," said Wei Zhiyi, principal investigator of the AALI and a research fellow at the IOP.
The development of attosecond laser pulses has opened the door to the world of electrons, allowing physicists to investigate a wide range of electron behaviors. Scientists are expected to discover more novel phenomena at the attosecond scale, advancing both fundamental and applied sciences.
"In the field of ultrafast optics, attosecond lasers are at the forefront. If we can build such a large device in this field and serve a vast number of users, it will be like opening a new window and blazing a new trail in this area. It will have a great impact on our country's development in this field," said Zhao Kun, a research fellow at IOP and chief engineer of the Dongguan section of the AALI.
Attosecond laser infrastructure to boost China's innovation in ultrafast optics: scientists
