The Turkish art of paper marbling, Vietnamese popular songs and askiya, the Uzbek art of jocular dialogue are among the five elements added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage on 27 November.

Askiya is a genre of Uzbek verbal folk art that takes the form of a dialogue between two or more participants, who exchange witticisms around a particular theme.

Bearers and practitioners, mainly men, must master the particularities of the Uzbek language, and be able to improvise and reason quickly and skillfully, using humour and banter to great effect.

The dialogues, although humorous, play an invaluable role in raising awareness of social tendencies and events, drawing attention to important issues through acute observation of daily life.