Intangible heritage list
What is listed here
Only items with a published official document behind them: batch, serial code, list number and the area that nominated them. Chaozhou currently holds fifteen national-level items, listed by batch in the table below. Provincial and municipal items will be added separately.
Two UNESCO listings
- Tea processing (Chaozhou gongfu tea) — 2022, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, nominated by Chaozhou.
- Paper-cut (Guangdong paper-cut) — 2009, Representative List, nominated by Foshan, Shantou and Chaozhou together.
The fifteen national items
| Batch | Year | Code | No. | Item (name as listed) | Category | Nominated by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅱ—50 |
81 | Chaozhou music | Traditional music | Chaozhou, Shantou |
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅳ—4 |
148 | Chaozhou opera | Traditional drama | Shantou, Chaozhou 2nd batch added Jieyang; 3rd batch added Yunxiao county, Fujian |
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅳ—92 |
236 | Puppetry (Chaozhou wire-rod puppetry) | Traditional drama | Chaozhou 3rd batch added “Jieyang wire-rod puppetry” (Jieyang) |
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅶ—16 |
315 | Paper-cut (Guangdong paper-cut) | Traditional art | Foshan, Shantou, Chaozhou the list has no separate “Chaozhou paper-cut” item |
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅶ—20 |
319 | Yue embroidery (Chaozhou embroidery) | Traditional art | Guangzhou, Chaozhou same code as Guangzhou embroidery; 5th batch added “Yue embroidery (bead embroidery)” (Chaozhou) |
| 1st | 2006 | Ⅶ—40 |
339 | Chaozhou woodcarving | Traditional art | Chaozhou 2nd batch added Jieyang and Shantou |
| 2nd | 2008 | Ⅴ—34 |
270 | Song-book (Chaozhou song-book) | Quyi | Chaozhou the 1st-batch item under this code is “Song-book (Dongshan song-book)” of Dongshan county, Fujian; this item sits under quyi, not folk literature |
| 2nd | 2008 | Ⅷ—96 |
879 | Fengxi porcelain firing technique | Traditional craft | Fengxi district, Chaozhou |
| 2nd | 2008 | Ⅹ—107 |
1014 | Tea processing (Chaozhou gongfu tea) | Folk custom | Chaozhou added to the UNESCO Representative List in 2022 |
| 2nd | 2008 | Ⅶ—47 |
346 | Clay sculpture (Dawu clay sculpture) | Traditional art | Chao’an district, Chaozhou |
| 2nd | 2008 | Ⅶ—50 |
349 | Lantern (Chaozhou festival lantern) | Traditional art | Foshan, Xiangqiao district, Chaozhou |
| 3rd | 2011 | Ⅶ—91 |
867 | Inlay (Chaozhou cut-and-stick porcelain) | Traditional art | Chaozhou Institute of Arts and Crafts the 2nd-batch inlay item was nominated by Shantou and Puning |
| 4th | 2014 | Ⅷ—218 |
1332 | Chaozhou painted porcelain firing technique | Traditional craft | Chaozhou |
| 4th | 2014 | Ⅷ—98 |
881 | Pottery firing (Fengxi hand-thrown red-clay teapot) | Traditional craft | Chaozhou |
| 4th | 2014 | Ⅶ—112 |
1316 | Drawn-thread work (Chaozhou drawn-thread work) | Traditional art | Shantou, Chaozhou the same code covers “Shantou drawn-thread work” |
One point on names: the table uses the item names exactly as listed, unabbreviated. “Chaozhou paper-cut” and “Chaozhou lantern” are what people here call them; in a formal citation write the full “Paper-cut (Guangdong paper-cut)” or “Lantern (Chaozhou festival lantern)” and give the nominating area — how items are merged or split is decided by the list, not by this site. Codes and list numbers were checked item by item against the transcript of the list; the check sheet is in Sources and evidence.
Four notes
First, several items are shared across the three cities. Chaozhou opera, Chaozhou music and drawn-thread work all name Chaozhou, Shantou or Jieyang as nominating area or holding institution; the same item may have a separate holding institution in each city, which is not duplicate nomination.
Second, batches and years follow the list of Chaozhou’s fifteen national items published on the Chaozhou municipal government portal; codes, list numbers and nominating areas were checked item by item against the transcript of the national list of representative intangible heritage items, zh.wikipedia.org, accessed 18 October 2026. Categories are the ones the list itself uses; no separate scheme has been invented.
Third, a listing proves only that an item was inscribed, not that it has been properly studied. This site cites the list for the level of protection and the nominating area, and does not treat it as a historical source.
Fourth, the same code does not mean the same batch. For Chaozhou opera, puppetry, paper-cut, Yue embroidery, woodcarving, inlay and pottery firing, several batches and several nominating areas sit under one code; the table notes the later batches in the nominating-area column only.
Topics already open
- Chaozhou embroidery / Yingge dance / Chaozhou opera / Chaozhou woodcarving / Gongfu tea
- Chaozhou music / Chaozhou song-book / Chaozhou cut-and-stick porcelain / Fengxi porcelain and hand-thrown teapots
Yingge dance does not appear in the table above (its national item name is “Yingge”, nominated by Chaoyang district in Shantou and by Puning), but it is national-level heritage all the same, so its topic is listed here too.
Four further topics are open: Chaozhou wire-rod puppetry / Chaozhou paper-cut / Dawu clay sculpture / Chaozhou festival lantern.
For the dates, lunar days and Gregorian equivalents of the deity-procession items, see the procession calendar (twenty dates, each with its own page); the list here records only level and code.
Sources
Transcript of the national list of representative intangible cultural heritage items (batch, code, list number, nominating area), zh.wikipedia.org, accessed 18 October 2026; Chaozhou municipal government portal, “Which fifteen Chaozhou items were re-certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism?”; China Youth Net, “How much Chaozhou heritage do you know”; project and bearer pages on the China Intangible Cultural Heritage site; list of the Guangdong Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum. Accessed 18 October 2026.
Pronunciations and one-line glosses for craft names such as chaoxiu, drawn-thread work, gold-lacquer woodcarving and qianci are in Glossary · crafts and performance.
Last revised: 3 November 2026