The 9th International (Shanghai) Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Forum was held at the Shanghai Art & Design Academy on Thursday.

Along with the ongoing International Exhibition of Traditional Fine Arts at the Shanghai Art Collection Museum, both the forum and the exhibition are key projects of the Shanghai Culture program, which aims to promote cultural exchanges between Shanghai and its "sister cities" involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

This year's forum is themed"Tracing Art in the Heart" and features speakers from countries such as China, Japan, Austria, Norway, Argentina, Egypt, Colombia, Turkey, Slovakia and Ukraine talking about their practices and experiences protecting intangible cultural heritage.

According to the organizers, the forum hopes to build a platform to bring together the wisdom of experts and scholars from around the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing intangible cultural heritage protection.

The subjects of the forum varied from "China's Last 20 Years in Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection," "Legislation's PromotionalEffect on Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection," "Masters of Diversity – Heritage in Handcraft Techniques and Procedures in Argentina" to "Speaking 'Paper': Egypt's Ancient Culture Preserved on Papyrus" and "Protection and Innovation in the Practice of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Colombia."

Due to the pandemic, some of the speeches were presented via video or writing.