2019 Asia-Pacific Youth ICH Storytelling Contest

ICHCAP is holding the 2019 Asia-Pacific Youth ICH Storytelling Contest. Open to under 35s in the Asia-Pacific region, UNESCO prioritized youth as the main driver of innovation and change for sustainable development and emphasized youth participation. Especially, since intangible cultural heritage relies on community transmission, the role and participation of young people leading future generations is very important.

• A story on how future generations are transmitting specific ICH elements in the Asia-Pacific region
• A story that conveys the importance of safeguarding and sustaining Asia-Pacific ICH and its transmission by future generations
• A story on practicing, safeguarding, and transmitting ICH with community-based youth participation in the Asia-Pacific region

Deadline for entries: 15 October 2019

UNESCO has recognized the youth as a priority group and emphasized their involvement as the driver of innovation and change for sustainable development. Youth practitioners play a particularly important role, as ICH relies on direct transmission among community members. As a UNESCO category 2 center, ICHCAP has organized the youth ICH storytelling contest with an aim to give youth practitioners an opportunity to develop their safeguarding activities and raise awareness of ICH among young generations.

Applicants aged between 18 and 35 (born in 1983-2001) can participate in the contest. The contest has two categories: youth practitioners (theme: My Dream, My ICH), and the youth in general (theme: Youth Meets ICH). For the former category, youth practitioners can submit their own stories in the form of an interview or essay. For the latter category, young people can submit stories about ICH they meet in their everyday lives or on travels. Submissions should be either photo essays or videos. Submissions should be in English, but the applicant’ s native language may be used if the submitted video has English subtitles.

ICHCAP will select a total of 36 winners and give them certificates and prizes. The awards to be offered in each category are: Grand Prize for 1 person, Excellence Prize (1 person), Distinction Prize (2 persons), Special Award (4 persons), and Participation Prize (10 persons). ICHCAP is planning to hold online exhibitions or publish photo essays using the prize-winning entries.

ICHCAP expects that the contest will help raise awareness of youth participation in ICH safeguarding. Applicants can register their submissions online via the contest website (http://www.ichcap.org/mc/), which provides detailed information about the contest.