Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang province is known for its charming sceneries and magnificent peaks. Indeed, around Tiantai Mountain lies the quintessence of the Chinese culture, for it is the cradle of the Hehe culture, and it is the place where the idea of Hehe (harmony and cooperation) has long grown into the hearts of local people.

In Tiantai county, when it comes to the Hehe culture, we cannot get past Shen Zhongming and the Hehe Cultural Park he helped build. Born in Tiantai county, Shen is the chairman of the board at Zhejiang Mingfeng Industrial Co. Ltd., and president of Zhejiang Car Utilities Industry Association. Nurtured by the Hehe culture since his childhood, Shen took a special liking to the concept at a very young age, and has reaped a lot of benefits from it.

A lady tries the traditional Chinese sedan at the Hehe Culture Park in Tiantai during the "Taizhou (China)-Fort Wayne (US) Friendly Week" in 2018.

In the early days, there were no places or areas specially allocated for the promotion and protection of the Hehe culture in China. Therefore, setting up a Hehe-themed cultural park to commemorate Hanshan and Shide, two legendary monks who once lived as recluses on Tiantai Mountain during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and who have been regarded as symbols of the Hehe culture, became Shen’s quest.

In 2008, as Shen’s company, Zhejiang Mingfeng Industrial Co. Ltd., was ready to move to a new site, the old factory buildings from the 1970s had to be renovated, which provided an opportunity for the establishment of a Hehe Cultural Park. In Shen’s mind, it is his bounden responsibility to pass on and promote the best of traditional Chinese culture, and building a Hehe cultural park was bound to bring a lot of benefits to the nation, the people and, more importantly, the future generations. It was much more rewarding than a commercial undertaking.

Together with his son, Shen began working in earnest. They organized a team for the planning and the construction work, and Shenggang, Shen’s son, was put in charge of collecting cultural relics and items, as well as historical documents and materials on the Hehe culture from home and abroad. During the preparations, sports facilities were put in place, which local residents could freely enjoy.

A Korean delegation visits the Hehe Culture Park in 2018.

After several years of hard work, the Tiantai Hehe Museum, China’s first Hehe culture-themed museum, officially opened to the public on May 16, 2015, inside the newly launched Hehe Culture Park. More than 3,000 items and historical documents on the Hehe culture were collected, protected and exhibited at the museum. At the same time, the Global Database on Hehe History also began to take shape. Since then, the Tiantai Hehe Museum has become an important window and base for the dissemination of the Hehe culture. So far, the museum has received more than 500,000 visitors, including many prominent Chinese and international experts and scholars.

At present, the Hehe Culture Park serves as an education base not only for the Party School of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee and the Organization Department of the CPC Taizhou Municipal Committee, but also a Hehe culture research base for Renmin University of China. The park has carried out international exchanges on the Hehe culture with the United States, Japan, Korea, Canada and other countries, and helped establish the Hehe Culture Research Association in Canada and the Hehe Culture International Center in Tokyo, Japan, playing a great role in promoting the overseas dissemination of the Hehe culture.

The One Rattan Gallery was established by Shen Zhongming inside the Hehe Culture Park in Tiantai.

Since then, a hall showcasing marriage customs and a “one rattan” gallery have also been set up. Born in the late Ming (1368-1644) and the early Qing (1616-1911) period, “one rattan” is a unique traditional wooden craftsmanship technique in Tiantai. Using wood strips of different lengths that are put together with mortise and tenon joints, the craftsmen then loop and twist the strips into different patterns without beginning or end, a symbol for harmony. It is so named because the works are shaped like the rattan palm trees in the mountains of Tiantai county. With over 500 pieces of classic works from various periods, the gallery also contains a workshop for the cultivation of inheritors.

The smooth development of the Hehe Culture Park is a dream come true for Shen Zhongming. Each step forward is a result of his painstaking efforts and wisdom. In fact, Shen’s commitment to the protection, dissemination and promotion of the Hehe culture has earned him the reputation of the “Hehe Culture Ambassador” in the local community.   

Editor: Li Qiaoqiao