Professor Chen Ping（Emma) is the Director and Professor of the Institute of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries at Jinan University, and Doctoral Supervisor. She serves as the Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on the Inheritance and Innovation of World Traditional Handicrafts, a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an Expert Member of the UNESCO International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development (ICCSD), a Board Member of the Alliance for Mountain Tourism (AMTM), and a Member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPPCC. She is also Vice Chair of the Committee on Ethnic Cultural and Creative Industries of the Chinese Anthropological and Folklore Society, and an Executive Council Member of the China Arts and Crafts Society.
Her research focuses on the international communication of cultural heritage, interdisciplinary studies of heritage, the interaction between cultural heritage and creative industries, global dissemination of Chinese culture, international exchange of folk art, and the inheritance and innovation of world traditional crafts. She also explores the construction of cultural heritage discourse systems.
Professor Chen is deeply committed to the protection and promotion of cultural heritage, especially international folk art. Since joining the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) in 2001, she has actively worked to foster intercultural exchange and build bridges between nations through folk art. Over the past two decades, she has visited more than 40 countries for international exchange and led over 20 Chinese folk art delegations to perform at major folk festivals in France, Germany, the United States, South Korea, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She helped organize the IOV World Congress in Salt Lake City (2008), assisted Bosnia and Herzegovina in establishing the DUKAT Art Festival, and supported initiatives such as the Andong Folk Festival in South Korea, DUKATI Street Performance Festival in Verona, Italy, China Design Week at Paris Design Week, and the Maison & Objet International Design Awards.
She also curated and launched major cultural and artistic platforms including the Tianjin International Folk Art Expo, Guizhou International Folk Art Expo, Lijiang International Folk Art Festival (Yunnan), and the Guangzhou–Jiangmen International Folk Art Festival and Handicraft Expo. In addition, she has organized high-level international academic and cultural events such as the Belt and Road International Forum on Cultural Heritage Cooperation and Exchange, the Understanding China International Conference (Guangzhou, 2021) thematic forum “Sustainable Development of Cultural Heritage in a New Perspective”, and the Creative 100 – Greater Bay Area Youth Creative Design Talent Training Program. Through these efforts, she has played a vital role in advancing global dialogue and cooperation in the field of cultural heritage and international folk art.
Professor Chen advocates for research on heritage protection and intercultural communication; she emphasizes the modern design transformation of traditional crafts within the frameworks of rural revitalization and urban renewal, promoting their high-value development and inspiring contemporary artisans to innovate while preserving tradition. She actively supports women artisans’ empowerment, aiming to improve their livelihoods and access to education. She has proposed two key ideas: the transformation of cultural heritage from a resource to creative-industry capital, and the mutual empowerment of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary regenerative design.
She has served as chief editor of Clothed in Civilization: A Century of Chinese Ethnic Costumes and Traditional Crafts (awarded “China’s Most Beautiful Book 2023”), Echoes of Civilization (2022), New Studies on Contemporary Folk Art (2019), Proceedings of the Belt and Road Cultural Heritage Cooperation and Exchange Forum (2017), and Blue Book of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Annual Report on China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Development (2015). She is also the editor-in-chief of Seeing China: Traditional Handicrafts of China (a 2024 National Publication Foundation Project).Organized multiple IOV World Youth Congresses — Salt Lake City, USA (2008); Nanjing, China (2009); and Stockholm, Sweden (2010).Organized and planned the Jiuzhaigou International Forum on the Protection of Endangered Cultures (2009）.
Her representative academic works include Promoting the International Communication of China’s Cultural Heritage through Digital Media and Diverse Pathways (2024), Overseas Dissemination of the Value of China’s Cultural Heritage (2023), Historical Development and Cross-Cultural Communication of European Chinese-Language Media (2021), and From the Revival of Chinese Culture to the Regenerative Design of Traditional Crafts (2021). She has published over 100 scholarly articles, including Reutilization of Cultural Heritage and the Development of Creative Industries along the Belt and Road (2023), Heritage Regeneration and Utilization (2023), Craftsmanship and National Identity, and Ceramic Culture and the Chinese Dream, with a cumulative readership exceeding five million.
She is the principal investigator of a sub-project under China’s National Social Science Fund Major Project, The Compilation and Digital Communication of the Genealogy of Classic Chinese Cultural Symbols, and has led multiple provincial and ministerial research programs, including Promoting Guangzhou’s Leading Role in the Cultural Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Guidelines for the Establishment of Guangdong’s Cultural Ecological Protection Zones.
Professor Chen joined the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) in 2001, served as Vice President in 2009, and became President in October 2025.
