Martial arts and traditional crafts are particularly popular among online classes launched on Sina Weibo that introduce 68 intangible cultural heritage items and have been viewed over 1.7 billion times, People's Daily reported last week.

Intangible cultural heritage protection associations nationwide developed the program with guidance from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Up to 2.4 million people learned martial arts online at once," says Liu Suibin, a representative of Qingcheng martial arts, who has committed himself to publicizing Chinese culture on Weibo for years.

Yin Liping, a master of Chengdu lacquer ware, has been busy promoting the traditional art on the video-sharing app Douyin, also known as TikTok.

Many young people don't know much about lacquer ware but like it, Yin says, adding that she hopes to talk more about the traditional skill with the help of such emerging short-video platforms.

Cultural heritage has also been publicized on other channels, such as TV and WeChat, during the epidemic.

Xinhua