The Digital Integration of Living Heritage: Co-Creating Industrial Memories, a themed event for the International Day for Monuments and Sites (April 18) was held in Beijing's Shougang Park on Wednesday.
Organized by the digital heritage committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites China, the event aligned with the 2026 theme, "Living Heritage", focusing on how industrial heritage can be sustained and reimagined in the digital age.
Song Xinchao, chair of ICOMOS China, emphasized that living heritage is not a passive "cultural commodity" but an organic system sustained by communities, places, and practices.
He cautioned against over-commercialization, cultural rupture, and value-related risks, advocating for modern institutions, technological empowerment, and cultural interpretation frameworks to provide resilient support for living heritage.
Structured around the themes of memory, transmission and co-creation, the event featured the donation of historical industrial objects to the RE Blast Furnace No 3 Digital Museum, the launch of an industrial heritage study route, and the inauguration of a university-industry collaborative practice base.
Three retired representatives from Shougang, one of China's largest steel producers that ceased operations in 2010 and relocated to neighboring Hebei province, donated historical objects carrying a century of industrial memory to the digital museum.
This ceremony aimed to mark the integration of grassroots memory into the public cultural heritage system, vividly illustrating that "industry holds memories, and objects speak", according to the organizers.
An industrial heritage study route, designed by faculty and students from Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, was also unveiled.
The route is open to youth, schools, and community groups, aiming to become Beijing's industrial heritage-themed study brand, bridging heritage, education, and the public. It offers a replicable and scalable model, turning industrial sites into "walking classrooms".
At the same time, experts and scholars delivered in-depth talks on the logic and practical pathways of transforming industrial heritage into cultural tourism destinations, local preservation and reuse of industrial heritage, and how digital technologies can expand the reach and perceptual dimensions of industrial heritage.
The digital heritage committee of ICOMOS China said it will continue to leverage its platform to connect experts with the public, and to advance the integration of heritage preservation with education and cultural tourism innovation.
The goal is to ensure that industrial heritage is revitalized and passed on, contributing to the high-quality development of China's cultural heritage sector.
