Beijing International Film Festival Honored: "Twelve Hours of Mosuo"

Winning the Youth China Second Class Excellence Award

Traditional culture is reborn in the images of youth Film

On April 23, 2026, good news came from the Short Video Unit Honor Ceremony of the 16th Beijing International Film Festival - the work "The Twelve Hours of Mosuo" stood out from 7088 works worldwide and was awarded the second-class excellent work in the "Youth China" section, becoming a representative work in this section that combines ethnic aesthetics and humanistic warmth. Zhang Jiaxuan, a second year graduate student in drama and film at Jinan University, played the roles of director, planner, and editor in the work.

The creation core of "The Twelve Hours of Mosuo" is "immersive from the first perspective", connecting the clothing, food, housing, transportation, folk skills, ecological wisdom, and spiritual beliefs of the Mosuo people along the timeline of the "Twelve Hours". From morning butter tea and Mosuo rice cake, to mountain and forest herb picking and intangible cultural heritage textile, to night fire armor rubbing and dancing, the camera not only records, but also allows the audience to "travel" and become a witness to Mosuo culture, touching the ancient wisdom of ethnic coexistence with mountains and waters in daily fireworks. By combining gamified narrative with Chinese ethnic style visual style, breaking the heavy sense of traditional ethnic themes, and using youthful language to make Mosuo culture "touchable, perceptible, and communicable", it not only preserves the cultural essence but also achieves contemporary translation, perfectly practicing the creative pursuit of "youth telling China and image inheritance of cultural context".

TV deeply cultivates: Season 2 of 'Blooming! Intangible Cultural Heritage', ten micro records guarding Xiamen's intangible cultural heritage

As the core director of the second season of Xiamen TV's "Let's Bloom! Intangible Cultural Heritage" program, Zhang Jiaxuan traveled through the streets and workshops of southern Fujian, creating a series of ten Xiamen intangible cultural heritage themed micro documentaries, focusing on ten precious intangible cultural heritages including "turtle cake seal carving, ancient xun performance, Xiamen pearl embroidery, Fujian style bonsai, micro carving, Minnan green herbs, Fujian Taiwan Songjiang formation, traditional Chinese medicine bone setting, Huihe shadow carving, and Xiamen mouth drum". With the creative concept of "seeing people, seeing skills, and seeing souls", she recorded the inheritors' adherence, disassembly of the essence of skills, and transmission of cultural warmth, using professional images to establish the local culture.

The work was broadcasted on Xiamen TV and landed on new media platforms such as Xiamen Radio and Television, allowing dormant intangible cultural heritage skills to step out of workshops, onto screens, and enter the public, using images to build a bridge between tradition and modernity.

Mentor Professor Chen Ping and graduate students take a photo, Zhang Jiaxuan (second from left)

Adhere to the era of traffic: creators of top intangible cultural heritage accounts, breaking through the boundaries of traditional culture and spreading it

At the same time, Zhang Jiaxuan is also the director and executive producer of the top traditional culture blogger "Jiang Xunqian (September) Team", responsible for the entire process of script planning, performance coordination, copywriting, drone shooting, etc. During her work, she deeply participated in the creation of multiple popular intangible cultural heritage short videos with millions of likes, helping her account gain over 100000 followers, total likes exceeding 20000, total views exceeding 300 million, and a single video receiving up to 700 likes and 120 million views.

From English song and dance to Xiangxi folk customs, combining professional film and television creation logic with the dissemination rules of short videos, allowing traditional culture such as English song and dance to break through boundaries with youthful and immersive expression, and enabling more young people to fall in love with an intangible cultural heritage through a single video, realizing the value of promoting good traffic and cultural circulation.

The 16th Beijing International Film Festival Short Video Unit Awards Ceremony

Carrying the mission of cultural inheritance with youthful images

During her five-year creative journey, from campus practice to industry practice, from millions of traffic to international awards, Zhang Jiaxuan has always adhered to her original intention of using visual creation to safeguard traditional culture. Based on professional skills: versatile coverage of directing, planning, directing, producing, filming, and editing, ensuring the quality of works with solid foundation; Taking cultural mission as the soul: focusing on intangible cultural heritage, ethnicity, and folk customs, and directing the camera towards overlooked cultural treasures; Taking a youth perspective as a wing: using innovative expression to break stereotypes and adapt traditional culture to contemporary aesthetics and communication.

The best inheritance is to make ancient civilization visible, understood, and loved. Young image workers are not only recorders of the times, but also cultural inheritors, innovators, and disseminators. In the future, Zhang Jiaxuan will continue to walk on the path of creating intangible cultural heritage and national culture with a love for images and a reverence for culture. She will use light and shadow to write cultural answers belonging to Chinese youth, allowing more Chinese cultural heritage to continue to thrive and be passed down from generation to generation in the lens of youth.

Zhang Jiaxuan's opening defense scene

Zhang Jiaxuan took a photo with her supervisor Professor Chen Ping and graduate students

Author's Biography

Zhang Jiaxuan, a second year graduate student majoring in Drama and Film at Jinan University, is a young creator. Deeply cultivate traditional cultural image expression, protect intangible cultural heritage with the lens, and tell Chinese stories. From the creators of TV intangible cultural heritage documentaries to members of a short video team with millions of views, and then to national cultural short films that have been featured at the Beijing International Film Festival, we interpret the power of imagery with the creative thinking of the new generation, relying on systematic professional imagery expression, and carrying the original intention of protecting traditional cultural heritage, allowing ancient civilization to shine in the new era of imagery.