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Yu Lyuxian (front) |
Yu Lyuxian, from Jianshui, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, is an intangible cultural heritage curator, and executive director of the Arts Committee of the Intercultural Connections Initiative (ICI), in Scotland, the United Kingdom. In 2022, after she graduated from the University of Edinburgh, Yu chose to stay in the UK, where she has dedicated herself to promoting Yunnan's intangible cultural heritage, and the arts and culture of ethnic minority groups. Through dance performances, curatorial practices and other methods, she explores ways to preserve Yunnan's ethnic culture, and to promote its diverse dissemination overseas.
Love for Hometown
Yunnan Province is often referred to as "Colorful Yunnan," as it features diverse climates, rich and vibrant landscapes, and dozens of ethnic minority groups. Located in southern Yunnan, Jianshui is a multiethnic county, where the unique folk arts of ethnic minorities and the rich intangible cultural heritage shine together.
Yu's aunt is a well-known dancer. Influenced by her, Yu began studying music and dance at age 5. Yu had a special fondness for Jianshui folk tunes, and she often danced to the melodious rhythms as she listened to the music. Yu was particularly passionate about the Yi ethnic group's Yanhe Dance.
Yanhe Dance is traditionally performed during important occasions, such as Yi festivals, weddings and funerals. In 2006, Yanhe Dance was included in the first group of items on China's national intangible cultural heritage list.
"As I grew older, I realized the significance of the dance for the preservation and inheritance of Yi culture. So, I made up my mind to master it, and to perform it well," Yu says.
Yu began systematically studying the dance under the guidance of her aunt. Every day, after school, Yu would head straight to the dance studio to practice, repeatedly, until she mastered every movement. Her hard work paid off, and her overall skills steadily improved.
Given her outstanding performance, Yu was frequently invited to perform during various activities, and she also won awards during folk-dance competitions. Thus, Yu has formed an inseparable bond with the dance.
Rhythm in Foreign Land
In 2017, Yu was admitted to Dalian University in northeast China's Liaoning Province. To broaden her horizons, Yu moved to the UK in 2021, to pursue a master's degree (in a curation-related field) at the University of Edinburgh.
Upon arriving in the foreign land, the unfamiliar environment gave Yu a strong sense of loneliness. Whenever she felt lonely, Yu would softly hum Jianshui folk tunes, gently moving her hands and feet to the rhythm. Those familiar melodies, and the movements, soothed her heart, and gave her the strength to move forward.
During her studies, Yu secured an internship with Edinburgh Tourism Bureau, where she was primarily responsible for social-media operations and creative research. Through this experience, she gained a deep understanding of Edinburgh's characteristics — a blend of the ancient and the modern.
While leveraging the city's rich artistic atmosphere, she planned her own way to promote Yunnan's culture. She frequently took the stage during various cultural-exchange events, and she often collaborated with international students, from around the world, to organize art and cultural evenings. Yu introduced traditional arts, such as Yanhe Dance, to her international friends, and she promoted Yunnan's culture through artistic performances and cross-disciplinary exchanges.
Yu has not only introduced Yunnan's culture, comprehensively, to the local community, but she has also collaborated with local artists and dance groups. Also, she has invited her British friends to visit Yunnan, where she has led them in experiencing the local lifestyle and culture firsthand.
In 2024, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yu curated the "Integration of Chinese and British Traditional Ethnic Cultures" event during the Edinburgh International Festival. The event fused Yanhe Dance with Scottish Ceilidh Dance. The performance was staged in a famous natural scenic area in Edinburgh, to simulate the joyful scenes of Yunnan's ethnic minority people singing and dancing in the fields.
Dressed in a splendid ethnic costume, Yu delivered a captivating performance of Mayinghua (Rhododendron delavayi), and other dances, and she provided the audience with a deeper understanding of Yunnan's intangible cultural heritage.
Over the following days, Yu and her team continued to perform at various venues. The performances showcased a brilliant collision of Eastern and Western traditional cultures and intangible cultural heritage, and impressed both the local Chinese community and the British public.
Yu has also adapted Mayinghua into a new version, which is easy for the public to learn and remember. It has attracted participants of different ages and cultural backgrounds. This vibrant atmosphere of universal interaction serves as a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and the UK, and it helps deepen mutual understanding and emotional resonance. It not only brings a sense of nostalgic comfort to overseas Chinese, but also leads international friends in marveling that "there is a lifestyle called Yunnan."
Says Yu: "Yanhe Dance is one of the most vivid languages of Yunnan's culture. The charm of culture lies in sharing, and I am willing to be a sharer."
Shining on International Stage
Yu believes those who promote the intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities should adhere — in tandem — to the principles of "preserving tradition" and "embracing innovation." With this belief, she integrates curatorial knowledge into her creative practice, boldly experimenting with the fusion of traditional dance and various art forms, such as installation aesthetics, visual storytelling and community interaction. As such, Yu strives to open up new avenues of expression and communication for ethnic minorities' intangible cultural heritage.
In November 2024, Yu's dance film, Crown of Flint Fire, was featured in a women-themed group exhibition in Edinburgh's City Art Centre. Centered on elements of Yanhe Dance, the work used distinct visual symbols to construct a cultural narrative of contemporary ethnic Yi women.
As the exhibition concluded, Yu curated a live performance of Yi women's intangible cultural heritage dances. The performance achieved a multidimensional resonance between static imagery and dynamic dance; in so doing, it showcased the cultural confidence of contemporary ethnic Yi women.
"Deconstructing traditional dance, through curation and employing a dual narrative of 'imagery plus live performance,' helps the audience understand the historical context more intuitively, and to feel the vitality of intangible cultural heritage in contemporary society," Yu says.
Following the group exhibition, Crown of Flint Fire was selected to become a display of the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. The forum was established in 2014 to promote various forms of traditional dance. The selection of Crown of Flint Fire was recognition of Yu's "artistic experiments," centered on Yunnan's culture.
Currently, Yu is collaborating with the forum to develop dance and art-therapy workshops, with the theme Yanhe Dance, to more deeply explore and disseminate Yunnan's culture.
In Yu's view, intangible cultural heritage is not a static symbol; rather, it should engage in continuous "dialogue" with the world's outstanding traditional cultures. Yu has drawn creative inspiration from traditional Western dances. When she returned to her hometown, for Spring Festival in 2025, Yu choreographed dances that showcased a unique charm, which blended Eastern and Western aesthetics.
In April 2025, during the opening ceremony of Scotland's annual Pomegranates Festival of International Traditional Dance, a short film, featuring Yanhe Dance, directed and starring Yu, was screened.
During preparations for the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival's Chinese Culture Week, Yu, as curator of the intangible cultural heritage and ethnic folk custom section, was primarily responsible for selecting intangible cultural heritage performances and folk-custom displays, and for ensuring all performances and displays proceeded smoothly.
During the Yunnan segment of Chinese Culture Week, she not only focused on traditional music and dance, but also highlighted other items of intangible cultural heritage, such as Jianshui purple pottery, blue-and-white-porcelain-firing techniques, and Pu'er-tea-making techniques.
In the future, Yu plans to create immersive exhibitions, featuring "viewing, smelling, tasting and appreciating," through intangible cultural heritage workshops and diverse interactive experiences, allowing global audiences to experience the unique charm of Yunnan's culture.
In cooperation with Yunnan-born artists, working in Europe, Yu has launched an intangible-cultural-heritage digitalization project. The project utilizes cutting-edge technologies, including VR (virtual reality), AI (artificial intelligence) and motion capture to enable Yunnan's intangible cultural heritage to transcend time and space constraints, and to showcase new vitality in the digital era.
The Yunnan intangible cultural heritage dance performance team, established by Yu, has become a shining calling card for promoting Yunnan's culture overseas. In addition to planning various performances, activities, such as training courses, workshops and interactive experiences, have also been organized regularly.
"I will continue to explore more effective means for cultural communications, to introduce more categories of intangible cultural heritage projects and traditional skills to the international stage, to allow the world to see and fall in love with Yunnan," Yu says.
Photos from Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly May 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
