Redefining Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Hakka Qilin Dance in the UK through Intercultural Co-Production

Presentation abstract

Abstract

This paper explores the co-production methodology of redefining Chinese Hakka intangible cultural heritage in the intercultural context, specifically Qilin Dance (Chinese Unicorn Dance), through a co-design process in a diasporic educational context in the United Kingdom. Developed in collaboration with Chinese teachers in British schools and Hakka Qilin dance artists in the Hakka community in Leeds UK, the project focuses on the creation of a learning toolkit that translates embodied cultural knowledge into pedagogical practice. Rather than treating heritage as a fixed form to be transmitted, this study approaches it as a dynamic process shaped through interaction, negotiation, and shared experience (Li, 2025). In the intercultural context of community engagement, cultural heritage knowledge is not simply delivered but co-constructed through dialogue between researchers and practitioners. Central to this research is the transformation of embodied experience: how observation, discussion, and physical engagement generate tacit understanding, how this understanding becomes internalized, and how it is subsequently expanded into transferable learning strategies. The co-design process thus operates as a mediating framework through which experiential knowledge is articulated and reconfigured into a toolkit accessible to younger generation in diaspora. By foregrounding this process, the paper argues that intangible cultural heritage can be redefined as an adaptive, co-constructed practice. It contributes to ongoing discussions on transcultural pedagogy, cultural sustainability, and collaborative knowledge production in diasporic contexts.