Wu Bingan: Don't be eager for quick success in intangible cultural heritage protection

(Professor of Liaoning University, Honorary President of China Folklore Society, Vice Chairman of the National Expert Committee on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage)"At present, the protection of intangible cultural heritage requires us to provide enough human, financial and material resources to support it, rather than expecting to sell money with the heritage of our ancestors." Wu Bingan said that the productive protection and development of intangible cultural heritage are two completely different concepts.

"Taking the Qixi Festival of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage as an example, the Cowherd and Weaver Girl are originally a loving couple who married independently.

But now some merchants are developing it indiscriminately, replacing the romantic Magpie Bridge with a flying bridge, and replacing the magpie bird with cranes (the costumes of the sky and characters do not show the characteristics of the cowherd and the Weaver Girl, etc.)." Wu Bingan pointed out that this kind of development of intangible cultural heritage is not protection, but a kind of destruction.

At present, my country's intangible cultural heritage protection has entered a period of legal protection and scientific protection.

To this end, Wu Bingan listed Articles 37 and 5 of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law on the forum.

Article 37 The state encourages and supports giving full play to the special advantages of intangible cultural heritage resources, and on the basis of effective protection, rationally utilizing representative intangible cultural heritage projects to develop cultural products and cultural services with local and national characteristics and market potential.

If a representative project of intangible cultural heritage is developed and utilized, representative inheritors shall be supported to carry out inheritance activities and protect objects and places that are part of the project.

Local people's governments at or above the county level shall provide support to units that rationally utilize representative projects of intangible cultural heritage.

Units that rationally utilize representative intangible cultural heritage projects will enjoy tax incentives stipulated by the state in accordance with the law.

Article 5 When using intangible cultural heritage, its form and connotation shall be respected.

It is prohibited to use intangible cultural heritage in ways such as distortion or derogation.

"First of all, we must learn to protect.

Only after protecting well can we talk about other things." Wu Bingan said that legal protection and scientific protection are now being called for more and more loudly, which is very gratifying.

In terms of intangible cultural heritage protection, we cannot "count small money" and "count money".

We must avoid being eager for quick success and instant benefit.

The first thing is to protect intangible cultural heritage inheritors, which is actually to protect the intangible cultural heritage mechanism.

This is the most important thing.

Secondly, we must protect the objects and places belonging to the project.

Wu Bingan said that although those simple tools are insignificant, in the hands of intangible cultural heritage inheritors, they are necessary tools for "extraordinary craftsmanship".

Regarding intangible cultural heritage protection, Wu Bingan also put forward his own eight propositions: First, productive protection should be defined according to the concept, definition and category of intangible cultural heritage itself; secondly, productive protection should be identified according to the classification of intangible cultural heritage projects.

Method protection; Third, productive protection should be determined based on the producible attributes of heritage list items; Fourth, productive protection should be selected based on the rational utilization policy of heritage protection; Fifth, the protection of productive methods of intangible cultural heritage must be implemented in accordance with the management regulations of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, and supervision must be strengthened; Sixth, in the implementation of the protection of productive methods, the intellectual property rights of the inheritors (or inheritance units) must be strictly safeguarded.

Various legal rights and interests are not infringed; seventh, in the implementation of the protection of productive methods, the handicraft inheritance mechanism of heritage projects must be strictly protected from damage; Eighth, we must strictly guard against and severely crack down on all acts that undermine heritage protection in the name of productive protection, such as fake, shoddy, and selfish practices in the eyes of profit.

"Practice has proved that only on the basis of effective protection and rational use of representative items of intangible cultural heritage can we produce cultural products and cultural services with local characteristics, national characteristics and market potential.

This is the most correct and best choice.

Any practice of using intangible cultural heritage projects for production must respect its form, connotation and basic elements.

Any practices such as misinterpretation, damage, shoddy manufacturing, and random modification of intangible cultural heritage projects will not achieve the goal of protecting heritage, nor will it be difficult to create high-quality cultural industries." Wu Bingan said that although we are holding this exhibition here today and many people come to visit it, the real intangible cultural heritage exhibition should be among the 1.3 billion people.

(The original text was published in "China Culture News" on September 14, 2012)