[Wang Fuzhou] Application for World Heritage: Facing the tradition and facing the future inheritance

Editor's note: 38 projects have been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Humanity, ranking first among the States Parties; Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping was elected chairman of the new UNESCO General Conference, becoming the first China among the organization's previous "leaders"; The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Training Center was established in Beijing-China for Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection.

While inheriting cultural traditions, it is engraved with new history and has been praised as a "China Experience" by international colleagues.

Today, while attaching importance to the rejuvenation of traditional culture, the road to intangible cultural heritage protection is still long and has more far-reaching significance.

"The Qingming Festival breaks the rain, and the grain rain breaks the frost." With the arrival of the solar term "Grain Rain", the pace of spring is gradually drifting away, and the rhythm of farming is accelerating.

Following the successful application of abacus last year, the 24th solar terms of the lunar calendar, a spiritual symbol engraved with the mark of farming civilization and beating the pulse of traditional culture, recently embarked on the road of application for a cultural heritage.

Intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter referred to as intangible cultural heritage) is the crystallization of human creativity, imagination, wisdom and labor.

For a nation, intangible cultural heritage is a continuation of precious traditional cultural memories and spiritual blood; for the entire mankind, it is a spiritual home that nourishes the soul.

China is no longer unfamiliar with the word intangible cultural heritage.

It began in 2001 when Kunqu Opera was included in the world's first batch of "masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage of mankind"; application for the cultural heritage application means applying to the UNESCO Heritage Committee to join the world heritage.

The specific intangible cultural heritage protection behavior has gradually become a topic of public concern in my country.

What should I apply for?

Expand the horizons of applying for cultural heritage and take into account the diversity and worldliness of cultural traditions

In thousands of years of history, Chinese civilization has a long history and has experienced many collisions and integrations of different civilizations; in the vast geographical space, different regions have bred different ethnic groups and nourished diverse cultural traditions-compared with other countries in the world, China has a wide variety of cultural heritage, so which ones should be preferred to apply for the world's heritage? It is necessary to consider its urgency while taking into account diversity and world influence.

It can be said that there is its own pace and priorities on the road to applying for a heritage heritage.

Take the twenty-four solar terms recently applied for a cultural heritage as an example.

They perfectly combine astronomy, phenology, farming, and folk customs and have been used by our people for thousands of years.

Especially in today's pursuit of win-win results in "production, life, and ecology" and striving to build a beautiful China, the ancient wisdom contained in the 24 solar terms is of great value.

Compared with South Korea's warm kang application recently hotly debated on the Internet, the 24 solar terms have a richer cultural content, and their contemporary nature and reference for the development of other countries in the world are also more far-reaching.

Today, we have 38 projects selected into UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List, Excellent Practices List and Endangered Rescue Projects, ranking first among the States Parties: Guqin art and Longquan celadon traditional firing techniques represent China's classical aesthetic taste; Paper-cutting and shadow puppet shows contain a strong folk flavor; ethnic cultural heritage such as Dong Song, Gesar, Manas, Humai, and Tibetan opera reflects the diversity of Chinese culture; China's woodblock printing techniques, which have a history of more than 1300 years, have not only realized the spread of many Chinese classics, but also promoted the history of world cultural dissemination; China's traditional wood structure construction techniques, which have lasted for more than 7000 years, have not only created local Chinese architectural classics in history, but also profoundly influenced the architectural culture of East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea...

Facing the future and demonstrating the diversity, contemporaneity and worldliness of Chinese culture are the common characteristics of these projects.

Is the application for a cultural heritage destination or a gas station?

Application for a cultural heritage is just a means.

Facing the future, the gene of inheriting cultural traditions is fundamental.

Intangible cultural heritage is hidden in a subset of classics and history, as well as in traditional ethics and morality, and is more rooted in the great national spirit.

Today, when we attach importance to strengthening the research and protection of traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage is our important "index" and valuable asset.

Letting intangible cultural heritage face the future is a need to inherit culture and to maintain cultural diversity and sustainable development.

Successful application for cultural heritage will help expand the influence of intangible cultural heritage and enhance the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

However, we still need to be careful to emphasize the application for cultural heritage rather than protect: in the final analysis, the application for cultural heritage is not to join the United Nations intangible cultural heritage list or roster, but to improve people.

Pay attention to cultural heritage in order to better inherit the cultural traditions it contains.

On the road to intangible cultural heritage protection in my country, application for cultural heritage is a wonderful chapter worth remembering.

What is more important is the experience in traditional cultural protection that we have continuously accumulated and explored in this process.

my country's road to intangible cultural heritage protection over the past 10 years has been praised as the "China Experience" internationally.

This is based on national conditions, with inheritors as the core, with continuous inheritance as the focus, and with the purpose of protecting cultural diversity and promoting mutual understanding, respect and sustainable development among ethnic groups, communities, groups and individuals.

It is government-led and people-led.

A path of inheritance and protection that participates and solidly promotes.

For more than ten years, intangible cultural heritage protection has been on the road of conscious and scientific protection from the initial single project protection to overall, systematic and comprehensive protection.

On the one hand, active legislative protection.

Following the Cultural Relics Protection Law, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People's Republic of China became the second law in the cultural field after the founding of New China, marking that my country's intangible cultural heritage protection has entered a new stage in history.

On the other hand, we will vigorously promote cooperation with other countries.

With the approval of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, my country has become one of the first countries in the world to join the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

We have carried out exchanges and cooperation with the international community for nearly 10 years, such as joint application and joint protection of intangible cultural heritage with neighboring countries: Mongolia's long-term mission, which has successfully applied for a heritage, is the result of cooperation between my country and Mongolia, and cooperation with other countries and regions such as Turkey and ASEAN is underway.

In addition, in line with the richness of intangible cultural heritage projects, we have established a multi-level and multi-dimensional traditional cultural protection system.

For example, through a comprehensive census, a "ledger" of the basic situation of my country's intangible cultural heritage, including the quantity, origin of the project, historical process of evolution, current situation, inheritors, protection measures, etc., has been established; a national and provincial, prefectural, and municipal four-level directory protection system, as well as a system for publishing a national-level inheritance name list; a national-level cultural and ecological protection experimental zone has been established to protect the integrity of cultural and ecological space and the richness of cultural resources, etc.

If "China's experience" is the international community's affirmation of my country's achievements in intangible cultural heritage protection, facing new rules, challenging old practices, and starting new explorations while improving existing experience, it is a new growth point on the road to cultural inheritance.

For example, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education jointly carry out academic research and echelon construction to provide academic support for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Recently, intangible cultural heritage projects such as "Nantong Blue Calico Printing and Dyeing Skills" have been successfully listed in the National Natural Science Fund, and "Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection in the Process of Urbanization" has been listed in the National Social Science Fund: leveraging academic circles to jointly protect traditional culture The road to inheritance in the future.

Another example is to obtain special subsidies from the State Council for some intangible cultural heritage inheritors, break the marginalized status of intangible cultural heritage inheritors as "craftsmen" for a long time, and improve the social status, sense of honor and responsibility of the inheritors.

Explore the talent training model of "school-enterprise cooperation, integration of study and study", and jointly run schools by scientific research institutions, schools and enterprises, and promote the inclusion of intangible cultural heritage project education of "leading apprentices in classes" into the category of free admission in secondary vocational education, thereby fundamentally solving the problem of lack of talents for intangible cultural heritage.

Two concepts for the future

"Understanding the past thousand years is to better build the next five hundred years."

Facing the future, the reshaping of two major concepts is particularly critical.

First, raise awareness of the mission of intangible cultural heritage protection.

Over the past 100 years, China's traditional culture has experienced several huge impacts, and China's contemporary urbanization process is the closest one.

As carriers of traditional cultural genes, how can intangible cultural heritage assume responsibility for traditional culture while protecting itself? We are launching corresponding support plans one after another, such as protection plans for folk customs, traditional handicrafts and local operas that are gradually drifting away with the disappearance of traditional ancient villages.

We need to realize that intangible cultural heritage emphasizes not only material achievements, but also the superb skills, unique ways of thinking, and rich spiritual connotations behind these materialization forms are the essence of intangible cultural heritage.

For example, in the art of guqin, what we see is guqin and performers, while what constitutes the true intangible cultural heritage is the invention, production, playing skills, tune composition, performance rituals, inheritance system, thoughts and so on.

For example, in Guqin art, although many intangible cultural heritage projects are presented through materialization, their value mainly relies on the oral and spiritual teachings of the inheritors.

For this reason, intangible cultural heritage values human values, living, dynamic and spiritual factors, superb, superb and originality of technology and skills, human creativity, and the nation's emotions and expressions reflected through intangible cultural heritage.

This is particularly critical for us to revitalize advanced cultural traditions.

Second, we need to deepen our research on the connotation and extension of "productive protection" that has become an important part of the "China experience" of intangible cultural heritage protection.

In the past three years since "productive protection" was proposed, two batches of 98 productive protection demonstration bases have been announced to the public.

However, productive protection not only means the inheritance of skills at the material level such as Maotai and Wuliangye brewing, but should also be extended to the productive protection of spiritual products such as stage art.

At the same time, it is necessary to realize that productive protection is not the same as industrial assembly line production of handicrafts.

As stated in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People's Republic of China", intangible cultural heritage protection must be "rationally utilized and moderately developed." It is not for the sake of protection and rigidly retaining history, let alone over-development in the process of the market economy.

Intangible cultural heritage projects have their own artistic laws.

Core skills must prevent mechanization and large-scale production.

Selecting and leading apprentices has their own characteristics and requirements and cannot be changed at will.

The path of productive protection also needs to be colorful and diverse: for example, comprehensive protection of multiple intangible cultural heritage projects, in-depth protection of individual projects, protection models that effectively integrate traditional skills and modern technology, etc.

"Understanding the past thousand years is to better build the next five hundred years." Intangible cultural heritage, together with Confucian culture, Taoist culture and Buddhist culture, forms the cornerstone of Chinese traditional culture.

The real purpose of intangible cultural heritage protection is to inherit cultural traditions for the future and to provide impetus for the innovation of China's contemporary culture and the development of world civilization.

"Spring rain surprises spring and clear valley sky, summer is full of sunshine and summer heat are connected,

In autumn, the dew is cold in autumn, and the frost falls, and the snow is snow in winter and the cold is small in winter."

When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me this "Twenty-Four Solar Terms Song", which opened up a new perspective for me to perceive the world; many years later, my children sang this song in the spring of the city.

Isn't life precisely because of this kind of inheritance that gives rise to warmth? Isn't the practical appeal of intangible cultural heritage protection just by arousing the cultural consciousness of generations of young people, thereby gradually establishing cultural self-confidence and moving towards cultural self-improvement?

It can be believed that with the attention and care of the whole society, the intangible cultural heritage that carries China tradition and China wisdom will bloom more brilliantly in the future.