Protection and Promotion of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage
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More specifically, these achievements can be elaborated as follows:
1. A series of legislations have provided the legal framework for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
The State Council has in the last few years issued such important documents as The State Council Administrative Department's Recommendations on the Strengthening of the Protection of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage and the State Council Circular on the Strengthening of Protection for Cultural Heritage. These documents have listed the missions, principles and tasks for intangible cultural heritage.
Meanwhile, Law on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage has now been included in the legislative plan of the State Council and is now going through the procedure of being reviewed and discussed. On the local levels, eight provinces and autonomous regions including Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Ningxia and Xinjiang have endorsed regulations on the protection of traditional, folk and ethnic culture successively. Establishment of this nationwide legal framework provides a powerful guarantee for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
2. Priority projects have helped to build a protective mechanism for intangible cultural heritage.
(1) The largest ever national survey of China's intangible cultural heritage, launched in 2005 and mostly completed by the end of 2009, has turned out very fruitful results. According to incomplete estimation, a total of 500,000 person-times have been engaged in this task, visiting 1.15 million folk artists and practitioners. With an overall investment of 800 million RMB, they have collected 290,000 items of precious materials and documents, made text records of about 2 billion Chinese characters, audio records of 230,000 hours, 4.77 million photographs and compiled 140,000 volumes of general survey studies, covering altogether about 870,000 items of intangible cultural heritage across China.
(2) An inventory system comprising national, provincial, municipal and county-level lists of intangible cultural heritage has taken shape. In line with the spirit of The State Council Administrative Department's Recommendations on the Strengthening of the Protection of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage (SCAD [2005] No. 18), the State Council has issued two national intangible cultural lists with 1028 items. Lately the Ministry of Culture has issued 349 recommended items for the 3rd national list of intangible cultural heritage for public review, and 7109 items for provincial list of intangible cultural heritage by provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, and a large of cities and counties have also set up their intangible cultural heritage lists on their own levels.
(3) Representative transmitters of intangible cultural heritage items are effectively protected. The Ministry of Culture has stipulated Provisional Measures for the Identification and Administration of Representative Transmitters of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Items. In accordance, 1488 national representative transmitters in three groups have been identified and publicized between 2007 and 2009, and 6332 provincial representative transmitters have been identified by local authorities.
Besides, a number of cultural ecological reserves have also been built. From June 2007 to May 2010, the Ministry of Culture has set up six cultural ecological protection pilot areas including Reserves for Minnan Culture (south of Fujian province), Huizhou Culture (Anhui province), Regong Culture (Qinghai province), Qiang Ethnic Culture, Hakka Culture (Meizhou of Guangdong province) and Wuling Mountainous Area (western Hunan province).
(4) There is a good momentum in the establishment of intangible cultural heritage theme museums, folk custom museums and heritage transmission centers. According to incomplete estimation, there are 424 intangible cultural heritage museums, 96 special exhibition halls, 179 folk custom museums and 1,216 transmission centers in different provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
(5) Productivity-based protection of intangible cultural heritage, i.e., to generate economic returns from the circulation of intangible cultural heritage, has achieved fundamental progress, contributing positively to the coordinated development of economy and society.
(6) During the Cultural Heritage Day and traditional ethnic and folk festivals, extensive public and visibility campaigns for intangible cultural heritage are often conducted, mobilizing all citizens to participate in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, thus laying a fundamental basis for the success of this task.
3. Fundamental measures have been taken to ensure the long-term safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.
(1) A nationwide working taskforce is in place for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, including the Inter-ministerial Working Meeting on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and different provincial and municipal Divisions on Intangible Cultural Heritage or Protection Centers for Intangible Cultural Heritage. Training of human resources on different levels of intangible cultural heritage protection institutions have been very frequent and dynamic, turning out a large number of eligible personnel working on the forefront.
(2) Increased investment has provided strong financial support to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. In line with the Provisional Measures on the Administration of National Special Fund for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, a special fund was earmarked for this special endeavor. Up to July of 2009, a total of 659 million RMB have been allocated from the central budget. At the same time, provincial financial departments have also allocated around 1.13 billion RMB from 2005 to 2006 (incomplete estimation). These amounts of money have helped to ensure the success of the protection of intangible cultural heritage around China.
(3) Academic research and experts' contribution have been strengthened, producing a series of important publications. More efforts are made in the theoretical studies of intangible cultural heritage, thus giving good guidance for practice. Experts' Committee on national and local levels have been set up to pool the talents of all social circles and sectors, so as to provide policy-making reference and intellectual support for the scientific protection of intangible cultural heritage.
4. Publicity campaigns have helped to spread information about intangible cultural heritage. Regular celebrations of major folk festivals, among others, have helped to raise the public awareness for intangible heritage protection.
5. Expanded international cooperation and collaboration have helped Chinese intangible cultural heritage protection gain more recognition worldwide. China has long been an ardent supporter of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage programs, including the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity and Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. China's Kunqu Opera, Art of Guqin, Art of Uygur Muqam and Mongolian Long Song (multi-lateral nomination with Mongolia) have been inscribed on the first, second, third UNESCO lists. 26 Chinese items have now been included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and 3 Chinese items were included on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, making China a country with the largest number of heritage items on the UNESCO list. In August 2004, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China adopted the decision for China to accede to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and China was elected Member of the first Intergovernmental Committee on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006. Up to now, in 2007 and 2009 respectively, China hosted Chengdu International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival and in May 2010, the International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection in the Asia-Pacific Region was established in the China National Academy of Arts. All these are testimonies that the international community has fully acknowledged China's efforts in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.
III. Challenges and Plans for ICH Protection in the Future
China is an ancient civilization of more than 5000 years of history. The rich and diversified intangible cultural heritage of China embodies the values, aesthetics and emotional memories of the Chinese nation. It demonstrates the cultural identity and boundless creativity of the Chinese people, crystallizes the deep emotional connections of different ethnic groups and their common underlying spirit. It can provide strong impetus for China's future development and innovation.
However, protection of ICH in China also faces many challenges. As is common with many countries of the world, with the drastic change of economy and society rendered by the globalization and modernization trend, contemporary cultural ecology is being changed dramatically. Many countries are also facing the fact that the very social basis for intangible cultural heritage is dwindling, legacies relying on person-to-person and oral transmission are losing their foothold, and many traditional techniques and skills are going extinct. Apart from that, some localities have no scientific sense of protection, they have given a lot of emphasis on the nomination of heritage items on official inventories, on the capitalization of such heritage for economic returns, but they haven't given equal emphasis on protection and management, many protection measures are not implemented, and some even over-exploited the heritage towards destructive directions. This is detrimental to the original purpose of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
To protect intangible cultural heritage in a scientific way has become an imperative mission of our times. In view of such challenges and difficulties, we will take the "scientific protection" of intangible cultural heritage as our primal task. More powerful measures will be taken for the protection of ICH, and more publicity efforts will be made to further increase the public awareness for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, particularly among the younger generation, and we will enable our people to take part in as well as share the benefit of well protected ICH legacies.
On the basis of previous achievements, under the guideline of "protection first, timely rescue, rational utilization and good transmission", and in the principle of "government guidance with social participation, synergy of work with clear responsibility division, visionary planning targeted towards effective results, and step-by-step implementation with emphasis on both individual programs and overall progress", our future mechanism of protection will be centered on ICH items and transmitters and seek to be both scientific and efficient, and specific measures will include the following:
1. More legislative measures. In view of the richness, uniqueness and diversity of intangible cultural heritage, legislative regulation is the fundamental guarantee for the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On the basis of the State Council Administrative Department's Recommendations on the Strengthening of the Protection of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage (March 2005), the State Council Circular on the Strengthening of Protection for Cultural Heritage (December 2005), the Ministry of Culture Circular on the Project of Protecting Traditional and Folk Culture, Provisional Measures on the Protection and Administration of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Provisional Measures on the Identification and Administration of Representative Transmitters of National Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture will make in-depth research and work together closely with other departments to facilitate the drafting of the Law on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
2. More scientific measures for a protective environment. There will be thorough studies on the ten different categories of intangible cultural heritage in China. Guiding principles for their protection and promotion will be worked out, together with supervision and exit mechanism. Items and institutions which fail to protect intangible cultural heritage will have their names taken off the existing lists after warning. And with coordination with educational departments, teaching of intangible cultural heritage will be expected to be incorporated into national educational curriculum, together with campus campaigns, textbook reforms and community campaigns, so as to make the study and transmission of intangible cultural heritage an integral part of people's daily life.
3. More publicity efforts to increase public awareness and participation. Major platforms such as the Cultural Heritage Day, traditional cultural festivals, Chengdu International Intangible Cultural Heritage and Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Western China, will be better used to tap into the potentials of communities, social groups, schools and research institutes as well as volunteers. Programs such as exhibitions, performances, lectures, forums, training and trade will be widely implemented, so that everyone will have a role to play in this national campaign.
4. More respect for the nature of transmission of intangible cultural heritage and more scientific approaches to fulfill the important function of ICH in contemporary society. We must adhere to the right principles for a scientific, comprehensive and systematic way to rescue and protect existing intangible cultural heritage. (1) The irreversibility and vulnerability of intangible cultural heritage have made it imperative that we always put protection and rescue in the first place. (2) The mobility and living nature of intangible cultural heritage has challenged us not to use static or ossified means to protect them, but rather to take proactive measures such as productivity-based protection. (3) It takes a holistic social environment to protect the living legacies of our people. Therefore we must combine specific protective measures with the protection of overall cultural and natural ecology. We must explore the long-term mechanism to incorporate ICH into economic and social development, so that intangible cultural heritage will not only provide the spiritual homeland for our people, but also make important contributions to the all-round coordinated sustainable development of our society and economy.
To safeguard intangible cultural heritage is not to linger in history, nor to live in the past. While seeking to safeguard our intangible cultural heritage, we also wish to enhance our people's cultural identity and creativity, to encourage more innovative spirit in the building of a harmonious society and a better world. It comes from the people and shall be part of the people's lives. It has far-reaching impact on both today and the future. It is the obligation and responsibility of every citizen. It is hoped that the media will also give more support to this cause and exert more influence in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.
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