Many travelers are familiar with the UNESCO’s World Heritage List (世界遗产名录) However, less is known about the organization’s List of World Heritage in Danger. It currently specifies 53 World Heritage sites under threat of “serious and specific dangers” due to factors such as climate change, armed conflict, and development pressures. The accelerated degeneration(退化) of these cultural treasures is a reality that should concern the world, since the younger generation may not have the opportunity to visit them.

For this reason, insurance company Budget Direct, and Neo Mam Studios, a creative studio based in the UK, have started a project, creating a series of GIFs to repair World Heritage sites and demonstrate what these ruins would have looked like if they had been protected.

Drawing attention to sites at risk, the project aims to give everyone the opportunity to visit these sites virtually (虚拟的). It started with in-depth research around the sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Based on the results, the team made a selection according to two main criteria: First, they were man-made places. Second, they still had standing elements. Focusing on the selected sites, the team worked with architects Jelena Popovic and Keremcan Kirilmaz and industrial designer Erdem Batirbek to research and illustrate six of these legendary locations.

In this series of GIFs, six sites are digitally repaired to their former glory. They include Hatra in Iraq, Leptis Magna in Libya, Palmyra in Syria, Portobelo-San Lorenzo in Panama, Nan Madol in the Federated States of Micronesia as well as the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Time does not stand still, and neither does technology. Thanks to these technologies, we can travel virtually, without leaving home, to those places that, whatever their future may be, will always be part of the collective memory.

In the long river of inheriting and preserving intangible cultural heritages, people have encountered numerous challenges, especially in this rapidly developing era. Fortunately, there are still many individuals who persistently make efforts to safeguard it.

Chang Yangyang is such a person. As an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, he once worked at a factory. Although he had learned the craft paper-cutting from his grandmother since childhood, in the eyes of Chang’s parents, a hobby was far less precious than a stable job. They didn’t change their minds until he won third prize in a national paper-cutting competition in 2010. This opened a new door for him in paper-cutting, which strengthened his determination to continue his career in the craft.

In addition to practicing skills diligently, Chang thought more about how to promote the Mengjin paper-cutting culture and let more people know about this intangible cultural heritage.

In his early years, Chang conducted local training and salons. Later, He tried Douyin live-streaming. At first, Chang was shy. But gradually, he became more familiar with it and learned to interact with viewers. In this way, he expanded his audience and followers from dozens of people to hundreds of thousands.

The young paper-cutting artist and instructor hopes there are more young people learning the art. It is for this reason that he currently teaches the art of paper-cutting at several local primary schools, Chang says his life dream is to establish a paper-cutting museum one day so people can learn more about the art form and grow to love it as much as he does.

With more young craftsmen like Chang injecting fresh energy, the intangible cultural heritage will be able to continue sharing the same clear wind with mountains and forests, and the same bright moon with rivers in the future years, moving towards eternity.

The United States is home to 562 recognized American Indian Nations each with its own language.

Yet the number of native. Americans with the ability to speak their tribe's language has decreased over the past century.

Now, Indian Nations are trying different ways to expand the number of native speakers, and increase interest in their communities to learn tribal languages.

Since the late 1800s. many American Indian children have attended boarding schools. At that time, Indian children were required to attend schools by law, and the government forced Indian families to send their children to such schools.

The children were separated from their families. and given English name The teachers often taught native American students in English, instead of the language of their parents. They were told they needed to learn English in order to get a job, earn money and buy a house or nice things.

However, fearing a loss of history and culture, the Indian Nations are experimenting with new ways to increase the language ability of tribal members.

At least one organization is turning to modern technology---The Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit group, has developed two apps for speakers of the Tlingit language.

The “Learning Tlingit” app serves as a reference for important language topics such as conversation phrases, number, and letters.

The Tlingit tribe has about 10, 000 members. They live mainly in southeastern Alaska. But as of 2013, the tribe had only 125 native speakers left. in addition, very few young people are able to speak Tlingit.

Currently there are two apps, called “Learning Tlingit” and “Tlingit Language Games”. The “Learning Tlingit” app serves as a language guide. It provides Tlingit words and expressions, the tribal alphabet, as well as a basic list of the words included. With the “Tlingit Language Games” app, users are given a choice of different places of environments, like a house, forest or ocean.