[Gu Junyuan Li] How to understand the five major relational issues in the protection of intangible cultural heritage
Abstract: Intangible cultural heritage protection is not an isolated matter.
It will be related to all aspects.
How to properly handle the relationship between the protection of intangible cultural heritage and the protection of cultural relics and classics, the relationship between protection and development, the relationship between inheritance and innovation, the relationship between the protection of intangible cultural heritage and the active absorption of foreign culture, and the relationship between government protection and private protection, is the key to properly handle the relationship between the protection of intangible cultural heritage and surrounding areas.
Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage; protection; relationship
1 How to understand the relationship between the protection of intangible cultural heritage and the protection of cultural relics and classics
In the eyes of many people, the term "intangible cultural heritage" is proposed relative to material cultural heritage.
Therefore, in their eyes, it is natural that material cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage are two completely different things.
But in fact, this is a misunderstanding.
In real life, material cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage are not two completely different things, but two aspects of the same thing.
That is to say, any kind of cultural heritage, from churches to spoons, is composed of two aspects: "material" and "intangible"(production craftsmanship and techniques).
They are like a person's body and spirit, relying on each other and inseparable.
The so-called "material cultural heritage" refers to the program that artists perform for people, or the finished product made by craftsmen; while the so-called "intangible cultural heritage" refers to the various skills and skills that are deeply stored in the minds of artists or craftsmen for performing or making.
Any kind of material cultural heritage has "intangible" components, and any kind of intangible cultural heritage also has "material" factors.
Pure "material cultural heritage" or "intangible cultural heritage" does not exist in real life.
Conventionally, we deconstruct cultural heritage into "material" and "intangible","tangible" and "intangible", just for the convenience of research and classification, rather than saying that cultural heritage itself exists in these two completely different states.
On this basis, we cannot separate cultural heritage into tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage, and protect them separately.
With this understanding, when protecting intangible cultural heritage, we can preserve traditional technologies and skills by collecting, sorting and collecting cultural relics.
2 How to understand the relationship between the protection and development of intangible cultural heritage
In the process of protecting intangible cultural heritage, many people have always believed that intangible cultural heritage can only be protected and cannot be developed.
Many misplaced developments seem to prove this.
Therefore, there is a saying among the people that "large-scale development and large-scale destruction, small development and small destruction, and no development and no destruction." Can intangible cultural heritage really only be protected and not developed? We disagree with this.
The industrial development of intangible cultural heritage can be roughly divided into two models: the first is the industrial development of intangible cultural heritage carried out by the inheritor taking the intangible cultural heritage inherited by the inheritor as the development object; the second is the industrial development of intangible cultural heritage carried out by others other than the inheritor based on the intangible cultural heritage inherited by the inheritor.
The common point is that both make profits through intangible cultural heritage.
There are two differences: First, the former directly acts on the intangible cultural heritage itself, while the latter only uses certain elements of the intangible cultural heritage.
No matter how well or badly developed, whether successful or unsuccessful, it will not have a direct impact on the intangible cultural heritage; Second, the inheritors of the former directly participate in the industrial development of the intangible cultural heritage, while the latter are developed by others other than the inheritors.
Because the objects of action are different and the participants are different, the results will be different.
Let's first look at the consequences of the inheritors directly industrializing the intangible cultural heritage they have inherited.
When inheritors industrialize the intangible cultural heritage they have inherited, the first thing they lose is the traditional skills that have been passed down for thousands of years.
Because of the so-called industrialization, it must meet two conditions: First, it must adopt a large-scale mechanized method for reproduction.
In this way, traditional handicrafts will naturally be abandoned, and intangible cultural heritage will naturally disappear with the arrival of large-scale mechanized production.
Therefore, in principle, we do not want those inheritors who take the original inheritance of intangible cultural heritage as their vocation to participate in this mechanized production.
If they give up the traditional handicrafts they are good at and focus on mechanized production, it will be tantamount to picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons for them.
Because compared with mechanized production, traditional handicrafts are undoubtedly more valuable; second, the so-called industrialization must manage enterprises in a modern management method.
In this way, traditional oral teaching will naturally disappear, and traditional teaching methods will naturally disappear.
Intangible cultural heritage will also be unable to reserve follow-up talents due to the disappearance of traditional inheritance models.
Therefore, once the inheritor implements industrialized management of the intangible cultural heritage he inherits, the intangible cultural heritage he inherits will inevitably disappear.
Secondly, once inheritors participate in the industrial development of intangible cultural heritage, they are bound to throw away their original craftsmanship and original inheritance methods.
Therefore, once the inheritor participates in the industrial development of intangible cultural heritage, it basically means the demise of the project.
So, does this mean that intangible cultural heritage cannot be developed? Not at all.
Intangible cultural heritage is the most precious cultural treasure left to us by our ancestors.
It cannot be just a living "cultural relic" and will not promote the development of today's society.
However, it must be stated that those who promote the industrialization and development of intangible cultural heritage should not be inheritors, but cultural and creative industry workers and developers at all levels and types.
Since these people are not inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, their participation will not affect the living inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, and there is no plunder of the human resource of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage by businessmen.
At the same time, since they only borrow certain elements of intangible cultural heritage to make new products, even if their creativity fails, it will not cause direct damage or impact on the intangible cultural heritage itself-for example, we are adapting folklore into TV dramas, putting traditional dramas on the silver screen, creating new products based on traditional toys, or developing new proprietary Chinese medicines based on traditional formulas, even if there are mistakes, It will not have a negative impact on the source culture-the original intangible cultural heritage.
Because the entire development has been carried out "downstream".
At present, the reason why some colleagues are slightly dissatisfied with this kind of development is that people regard the products produced by this large industry as "intangible cultural heritage." In fact, just as contemporary imitations cannot be regarded as cultural relics, we must not regard these industrial products as "intangible cultural heritage." It is just a cultural and creative product, and we do not need to blame it according to the standards of intangible cultural heritage.
From this perspective, although the "inheritance" of intangible cultural heritage inheritors and the "development" of cultural industry developers can be "simultaneously", they must be "implemented separately." If we place the two completely different tasks of "protection" and "development" on one "platform", the development of intangible cultural heritage will not only be subject to various constraints due to the need of "protection", but also the "protection" of intangible cultural heritage will also be difficult to protect its original flavor due to the industrial development of developers.
On the contrary, if we place "protection" and "development" on two completely different "platforms" and implement them separately by different subjects-inheritors and developers, it will be easy to create a situation where protection and development are not wrong.
For example, as an intangible cultural heritage project, when storytellers tell stories, they must first tell the story exactly in accordance with the requirements of protecting heritage.
Because even difficult dialects and dirty mouths must be recorded truthfully, without having to consider the commercial value contained in the story and the subsequent commercial development issues.
If we also take into account the commercial value of these legendary stories when recording and sorting them out, it will be easy for storytellers to carry out necessary processing and abridgement of the legendary stories according to the needs of the market.
Not only will the academic value of legendary stories not be protected, but the artistic value of legendary stories will also not be fully exerted due to the containment of the consciousness of "protection".
The result will inevitably be that both ends will be ungrateful.
The correct approach is: First of all, we will first tell, record and sort out the folk stories in their native state in accordance with the standards for protecting intangible cultural heritage.
If necessary, industrialized development of intangible cultural heritage will be carried out in accordance with the standards for industrial development of intangible cultural heritage-either compiling them into a collection of legends and stories, or adapting them into movies, TV series, etc.
The result of this separate implementation according to different standards can not only enable the legends and stories in their native state to be more carefully protected and recorded, but also create a more relaxed environment for their industrial development.
In the industrial operation at this time, since the products have been separated from the matrix of intangible cultural heritage, no matter how innovative it is, it will not cause fatal harm to the intangible cultural heritage of the source products.
It can be seen that dividing and governing is undoubtedly the most effective means to resolve the contradiction between intangible cultural heritage protection and industrial development.
3.
How to understand the relationship between intangible cultural heritage inheritance and innovation
As heritage, intangible cultural heritage has dual nature.
On the one hand, it is a "cultural relic".
Its value is all kinds of information passed down through thousands of years-its historical information, cultural information, artistic information, social information and scientific and technological information.
If the above information is lost due to poor protection, intangible cultural heritage will be reduced to ordinary folk matters.
Therefore, the first key to protecting intangible cultural heritage is to protect all historical information it has in its original flavor; but on the other hand, intangible cultural heritage is a living thing that has always lived in contemporary society.
Traditional cultural matters in society are an important part of people's lives.
If we deliberately stick to tradition and do not want it to change in any way, it can easily be understood as turning "living folk customs" into "dead folk customs." Because in the eyes of many people, everything in the world is changing, intangible cultural heritage cannot remain unchanged.
Denying change means denying the general laws of the development of things, and it is pseudoscience in which subjectivism is at work.
First of all, we recognize that everything in the world is developing and changing.
For the entire human society, it is of course upholding tradition while seeking innovation.
For a country with sufficient human, material and financial resources, this is probably not a problem at all.
However, if we implement these dual missions to one person, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, and let him not only inherit the original flavor of the same work, but also diligently innovate, it is really like asking him to go east and at the same time asking him to go west, no matter who is able to do it.
To properly handle the contradiction between "protection" and "innovation", the only way is to establish a clear social positioning and functional positioning for the inheritor through the establishment of the concept of social division of labor-his responsibility is to create and inherit the intangible cultural heritage that has been passed down to this day.
If a society wants to achieve stable and rapid development, it will always divide people into two categories: one category is specifically responsible for protecting traditions, such as archaeologists, museum workers, and intangible cultural heritage protection workers and inheritors.
Their task is not to innovate, but to be "conservative".
The purpose of hiring them and paying them wages is to allow them to preserve or inherit the original cultural heritage in their hands through their own efforts, whether it is material cultural heritage or intangible cultural heritage.
Of course, it is actually very difficult to do this.
But this should be their goal no matter what; while the other group of people are specifically responsible for "innovation" and creating newer and better products for the development of society.
Once there is such a social division of labor, people will perform their duties.
You take care of your "protection" and I take care of my "innovation".
Due to the social division of labor, the "contradictory bodies" of "inheritance" and "innovation" are not only no longer contradictory, but will also become a unity that complements each other and promotes each other.
The purpose of protecting tradition is to provide new culture and new art., the creation of new science, and new technology, providing more and better reference and resources; The steady stream of innovation will in turn enhance the value of inheritance objects, make ancient traditions "come to spring", and play an increasingly important and increasing role in the process of social development.
For example, Xiao Huang, a villager who is the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, has the task of inheriting and inheriting the Dong songs handed down from history in an authentic manner.
During this process, no changes should be made, let alone changes from the government, academia and business circles.
As a central or local literary and artistic group, it is entirely possible to make a certain degree of changes to the singing of the Dong songs, including their formation and costumes during singing, based on the needs of the performance and the aesthetic needs of contemporary people.
Some people may ask: As a living person, can inheritors only inherit and cannot innovate at all? Of course not.
In fact, we reserve a lot of space for inheritors to exert their subjective initiative.
For example, the original flavor we require is that they remain unchanged in terms of expression, form of expression, and raw materials used.
Other small changes are not prohibited by us.
Secondly, as an inheritor, it is also allowed for him to make some new inventions and creations or try them out while inheriting.
We have neither the right to interfere nor the need to oppose it.
However, there are two points that need to be specially reminded: First, as inheritors, you must be clear that your job is inheritance rather than innovation, do not overpower the leader, and do not forget your responsibilities and obligations as inheritors of intangible cultural heritage; The second is to distinguish between "tradition" and "innovation", and truthfully tell them which are traditional works made using traditional raw materials and traditional crafts, and which are products created using new materials, new technologies, and new themes.
It is also the responsibility of the inheritor to tell people the true situation.
4.
How to understand the relationship between the protection of intangible cultural heritage and the absorption of excellent foreign culture
If a nation wants to achieve leapfrog development, it should learn to draw nutrition from others.
There are many ways to absorb nutrition, but the most basic ones are two: one is to learn from the traditions of our own nation, that is, to absorb nutrition from our ancestors; the other is to seek advice from foreign countries, that is, to obtain nutrition from other civilizations.
Although China is a big country, it has a tradition of humbly learning from other countries since ancient times.
The rise of the Han Dynasty and the revitalization of the Tang Dynasty were all products of learning from foreign civilizations.
Although there are many precedents in history to ask for advice from our national traditions, in general, we still lack certain cultural consciousness.
The intangible cultural heritage protection project provides us with an opportunity to learn from tradition.
Extraterritorial civilization is civilization, and national traditions are also civilizations, but the two cannot and cannot replace each other.
In the late Qing Dynasty, people who advocated innovation realized this early on.
Therefore, after hundreds of twists and turns, the strategy of "learning as the basis and Western learning as the application" was finally proposed-although this strategy still had many flaws.So, what is the significance of upholding tradition, protecting tradition, and being good at drawing nutrition from the essence of tradition for a nation that urgently needs revitalization?
First of all, intangible cultural heritage is a nation's historical memory and an important carrier of a nation's history and culture.
Protecting it means protecting the history of this nation.
Historical memory takes many forms.
If we simply understand it as texts or classics, we will become an amnesic nation in many ways.
Because many of our historical memories are not preserved in texts or cultural relics.
Instead, it is preserved in the vast amount of intangible cultural heritage.
Therefore, protecting it is of extremely special significance to protecting a country's civilization.
Secondly, intangible cultural heritage is also the cultural DNA of a nation, and is the most concentrated expression of a national spirit, national tradition, national integrity, national wisdom, and national characteristics.
When a nation's national spirit is confused, the easiest way is to find the driving force for the rise of the nation through the return of tradition and the exploration of the nation's intangible cultural heritage.
In the 1970s, under the attention of the state, large-scale excavations of Hemudu and Mawangdui sites, and the excavation of intangible cultural heritage in the early 21st century, played a role in revitalizing the national spirit and enhancing national self-confidence and cohesion.
This has been proved.
Thirdly, tradition is also the source of a nation's literary innovation, artistic innovation, and scientific innovation.
How well the source is dug and protected will be directly related to the stamina of the development of a nation's literature, art, science and technology.
Inheritance and innovation may seem contradictory, but in fact they complement each other.
Just as the height of a tree is determined by the depth of its roots into the soil, the formation of a nation's cultural creativity, artistic creativity and scientific creativity is determined by its degree of inheritance and depth of excavation of its own traditions.
This is because as an intangible cultural heritage that retains a large number of native genes, in the process of creating new culture, it has many natural advantages that secondary culture does not have.
We emphasize the protection of intangible cultural heritage, with the aim of protecting as many diverse cultures as possible before they disappear, and retaining more cultural resources that can be used for the creation of future writers, artists, fashion designers, art workers, and scientific and technological personnel.
As the saying goes: "A clever woman cannot make a meal without rice." It is obviously necessary for a nation to preserve as many precious national cultural resources as possible.
Otherwise, our future new cultural creations are likely to become water without a source and trees without roots.
Practical protection of our country's traditional culture will benefit the present and benefit the future.
We should take a long-term view.
5.
How to understand the relationship between government protection and private protection
Before engaging in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, we must be soberly aware of this basic fact: in the process of passing down intangible cultural heritage, two subjects often appear: one is the inheritance subject of intangible cultural heritage, and the other is The protection subject of intangible cultural heritage.
The so-called "intangible cultural heritage inheritance subjects" refer to those inheritors or inheritance groups of intangible cultural heritage.
The inheritance of a country's intangible cultural heritage-whether it is the inheritance of folk literature, performing arts, traditional skills and festival rituals, is mainly carried out through them.
Although the time has entered the 21st century, if we want to protect the intangible cultural heritage passed down in history in an authentic way, the tradition of "folk affairs and private affairs" is still worth learning from and inheriting.
Making good use of the traditional inheritance system represented by community leaders, village elders, wizards, traditional craftsmen and singers is the first step to ensure the original inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
Since 1949, although China society has experienced various political movements, this inheritance system still plays an important role in civil society.
As long as we recognize that civil society is the most important carrier for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage in China and are willing to play the role of this carrier, the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage usually will not cause too big problems.
This kind of intangible cultural heritage inheritance carried out with the power of the private sector not only mobilizes the enthusiasm of civil society to inherit intangible cultural heritage, saves administrative expenses of government departments, but also protects the original nature of intangible cultural heritage to the greatest extent.
Looking at the history of the development of folk culture in China, we can see that historically, whether it is Yangko in northern Shaanxi, Ansai waist drum, Leting shadow puppet, and Fengyang flower drum, they were basically independently passed down through folk power.
The work of intangible cultural heritage protection entities such as the government, academic circles, business circles, and news media cannot take over and personally participate in the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
Instead, they can use their own administrative advantages, academic advantages, financial advantages, and media advantages to help, encourage and promote the independent inheritance of intangible cultural heritage by civil society.
On the contrary, if we look down on them and start a new stove, intangible cultural heritage will inevitably be transformed beyond recognition due to the change of the inheritance subject and the intervention of laymen.
So, what should the government, as the main body of intangible cultural heritage protection, do well? The practice of intangible cultural heritage inheritance tells us that although government departments are outside the intangible cultural heritage inheritance circle and do not directly participate in the living inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, they also play a role in the process of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
Important roles-such as the establishment of policy systems, legal systems, fund operation systems, and organizational management systems for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
They are all completed by the government, the main body of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Not only that, in addition to establishing corresponding local operating systems in various places to supplement and refine the relevant work of the central government, the most important thing is to actively promote, support and help the inheritance work of local intangible cultural heritage inheritance groups.
Instead of using their own power to replace the position of intangible cultural heritage inheritors, let alone replace the traditional inheritance model and organizational model with the current system.
In recent years, some local governments have hired foreign directors to train local villagers every year in order to develop local tourism.
As a result, not only did a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources be consumed, but also a large number of foreign cultural elements were added in the choreography process, which made many local minority songs and dances lose their original charm.
This seems to be exactly what Lu Xun said to Yao Ke decades ago: "I thought songs, poems, poems, and tunes were originally folk objects, and literati took them for themselves.
The more they wrote, the more difficult they became, and they turned them into a stiff stone.
They took another one and slowly hanged it." [1]The two sentences Lu Xun casually said decades ago inadvertently pointed out the crux of the current protection of intangible cultural heritage in China.
The difference is that those who transform today's folk songs, dances, literature and art are no longer the "scholar-officials" in history, but today's governments, businessmen, especially the directors, painters or literati they hire.
Due to professional limitations and scope, these cultural people are not fully aware of the true value of folk art.
Under the excellent situation of the upsurge in intangible cultural heritage protection, it is not difficult to understand that a very embarrassing situation of "big protection and big destruction, small protection and small destruction" has emerged in some places.
In short, if we want to protect intangible cultural heritage, we must first recognize the basic fact that intangible cultural heritage itself is a "folk object".
Only by recognizing this basic fact can we mobilize the enthusiasm of civil society to inherit intangible cultural heritage, rather than despise the people, or use our strong position to replace and transform the people.
(The original text is contained in "Journal of Gannan Normal University", No.
4,2016, the annotations are omitted, and refer to the original issue for details)