[Liu Kuili] Some theoretical reflections on the protection of intangible cultural heritage
[Abstract] Paying attention to the protection of folk cultural heritage has its own time and space background and historical inevitability.
Carrying forward excellent cultural traditions is an integral part of my country's comprehensive, scientific and sustainable development and construction.
Protecting the nation's excellent cultural traditions is not only an important issue involving the destiny of the nation, but also the basis for building all human culture and enabling the diverse development of human culture.
Distinguishing consumption culture and identity culture is of great significance for protecting national cultural heritage.
The tension formed by absorbing foreign culture and inheriting existing traditions plays an important role in creating new culture.
Excellent intangible culture has distinct characteristics of sharing, so the protection of intangible cultural heritage has global significance.
"Cultural heritage" is not an object that is frozen and unchanging in time and space.
The authenticity of things cannot exist independently of specific time and space, nor can it be understood independently of people's value judgments on things.
Intangible cultural heritage is not only a record of yesterday, a reality of today, but also a foreword of tomorrow.
To "develop folk resources", we cannot abuse folk cultural heritage to hollow out its connotation.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage should be guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development, examined from a cultural strategic perspective, and considered and analyzed issues from the perspective of overall, macro, historical and human cultural development.
[Keywords] culture; folk culture; intangible cultural heritage protection [China Map Classification No.] G122
[Document identification code] A
[Article Number] 1008 - 72 (2004) 04 - 0051 - 04
In recent times, the protection of intangible cultural heritage, or more broadly speaking, folk traditional cultural heritage, has become a hot topic of concern to the whole country.
I don't think this enthusiasm can be explained by UNESCO's launch of an activity such as publishing a representative list of world intangible cultural heritage works.
On the contrary, the high enthusiasm and strong demands of people around the world, including China, contributed to the birth of such a measure.
This enthusiasm has its time and space background and its historical inevitability.
This is in line with the cultural craze since the 1980s, and can also be regarded as its continuation, expansion and deepening.
When we discuss the issue of intangible cultural heritage today, especially when conducting a theoretical analysis of it, we cannot involve the entire spiritual and cultural issue independently or in an expanded manner.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage is not a technical, trivial, methodological and methodological measure, but one of the important aspects of the construction of spiritual civilization in my country.
In this context, talking about cultural issues cannot but involve the issue of intangible cultural heritage; similarly, when talking about intangible cultural heritage, we cannot deviate from the background of the cultural construction system project.
- -For a long time, we have suffered a lot by ignoring tradition and indiscriminately denying tradition.
The attempt to create a new cultural world from nothingness out of thin air did not bear the fruit of ideals.
Today's reflection and awakening of the whole people is achieved at a considerable price.
Remembering from the pain, people began to re-examine and analyze our traditional national cultural heritage with unprecedented enthusiasm and rationality.
- -In the process of exploring the path of socialist construction and development, the construction direction of comprehensive, scientific and sustainable development was gradually clarified.
Attention to cultural issues has become the proper meaning of the topic.
In the process of building spiritual civilization, we gradually realized the significance of carrying forward excellent traditional culture.
Even in many important documents of the party and the country, the role and significance of this work have been repeatedly emphasized.
- -In the tide of globalization, economic integration, and modernization of social life, our national culture has been strongly impacted by foreign cultures.
Strong foreign culture will be regarded as fashion by some people, and fashion will change the values of more and more people over time.
Faced with this trend towards a single cultural model, people feel it is extremely necessary to explore and carry forward the excellent traditions of the Chinese nation's culture.
- -In the past two decades, people around the world, especially developing countries, have paid attention to and cherished national cultural traditions, especially intangible cultural heritage, which has become a worldwide trend of the times.
To a considerable extent, this affects our attitude towards national culture and intangible cultural heritage from the outside.
Second, if we look at our attitude towards our own national cultural heritage from the perspective of the relationship between national culture and foreign culture, we will find that we are undergoing an essential change in our stance.
China has experienced several prosperous periods of cultural integration between China and foreign countries.
However, it should be said that for a long time, a unified cultural pattern has been generally maintained.
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were first the missionary missions of Jesuits and the import of certain Western science and technology, and then the attacks of imperialist powers with strong ships and cannons, which changed the original cultural pattern.
During this period, various propositions were put forward against foreign culture, such as complete Westernization,"learning as the body, Western learning as the application", and comprehensive restoration of the country.
No matter which attitude, in summary, they all proceed from the standpoint of the nation and oppose national culture to foreign culture.
Under the constraints of the long-term concept of a unified system, we do not strongly feel the existence of a world outside China.
The world we face is only China.
This "world view" cannot fully manifest our national stance.
Only when the country was opened willingly and reluctantly, and only in the face of the crisis of colonization, in order to solve the problem of the survival of the nation, did our national consciousness awaken.
When we raise the issue of the protection of intangible cultural heritage today, we are deeply reflecting on our past positions.
When we realize that the earth is the home of the entire mankind, we no longer narrowly believe that protecting our excellent cultural traditions is only an important issue that simply involves the destiny of our nation.
At the same time, we have raised this issue to a new level., that is, building the culture of all mankind and giving human culture a diverse development foundation and prospects.
We are increasingly realizing that the position of the nation and the position of all mankind, or the position of nationalism and the position of cosmopolitanism, are not diametrically opposed.
It should be said that the nationalist stance is definitely of practical and progressive significance in response to the once-noisy arguments such as "European cultural centrality" and "European cultural uniqueness".
It still has very important and positive significance in today's real world and in the long-term process of the development of human cultural diversity.
In the past, when people endlessly debated whether to completely westernize, comprehensively restore the country, or use the Chinese system in the West, in fact, they consciously or unconsciously implied a narrow national egocentrism position deep in their hearts.
They always regarded Western culture as "them" who are opposed to "us", either or, and cannot be integrated and prosperous together.
Today, under the new historical conditions, faced with the reality of world economic integration and new issues in the development of human cultural diversity, this change in position is very important.
It will enable us to have a large degree of conceptual renewal and attitude change in terms of understanding, policies and measures.
According to statistics, there are about 30 million existing biological species in the world, but there are only a few thousand lifestyles in human society, and many factors in every national culture and every lifestyle are disappearing.
If the disappearance of these and other species in the biological world has caused us deep concern, then these and other factors in national cultural traditions are disappearing faster than the biological world.
This is not everyone at all times.
There is a strong sense of crisis.
Some people may ask the question, why must human culture follow the path of diversity development? There is also another collateral question hidden here, which is, why must we protect precious but endangered national cultural heritage? In fact, if we want to answer such questions, we must not involve cultural, or specifically the functional issues of intangible cultural heritage.
- -Culture was created to meet various material and spiritual needs of mankind in various eras.
This includes survival needs, physiological needs, emotional needs, mutual interaction needs, etc.
- -Culture is the crystallization of human cognition of the objective world and human beings themselves.
It is also the basis and starting point for further cognition.
- -Intangible culture is also a norm.
People live in a certain cultural environment, which coordinates the relationship between people.
People grow up in and are shaped by such norms.
- -Because of this, we regard people in the same cultural environment and living under the same cultural system as "we" and people of different cultures as "them".
As a result, culture shows its strong cohesion.
- -People use culture to adjust their own spiritual world and coordinate family relations, ethnic relations, social group relations, the relationship between man and nature, etc.
Can people ignore the enjoyment of culture, adopt a simple utilitarian attitude, and treat it indiscriminately? Facts have proved that when we treat different cultural events, we have never confused them and treated them with the same value.
In the enjoyment of our culture, two situations may be distinguished.
One is consumer culture: many cultural events, regardless of their origin and nature, can be utilized and utilized by us.
Because of this utilization and utilization, we can absorb all cultural events that are beneficial to us.
The other is to identify with culture: there are many cultural events that not only have the value of utilization, but also can connect "us" with each other's emotions and strengthen the relationship between "us".
It can also be said that they have rich value connotations and rich emotional added value.
For example, starting from 1912, at the initiative of Dr.
Sun Yat-sen, we switched to the Gregorian calendar, reducing our "year" to "Spring Festival", and moving the so-called "New Year's Day" on the first day of the New Year in the old calendar year to the first day of January in the Gregorian calendar.
This regulation has been implemented for nearly a hundred years, but the results have not been significant.
When we talk about "New Year", we still mean celebrating the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival has a much higher status in people's minds, and its meaning is much deeper and stronger.
It is not only a festival like New Year, but also has an added value of emotion, that is, the connotation of identification.
It has become a symbol of mutual recognition among all people of our Chinese nation.
Distinguishing the culture of enjoyment, or the culture of consumption, and the culture of identity is of great significance for us to protect national cultural heritage.
For people living in this culture, this identification value of cultural traditions is as natural and obscure as water is to fish and air is to birds.
Only when a nation faces the impact of different cultures, or When a person is placed in another cultural system can this potential value be explored and experienced and a strong sense of identity be generated.
Lenin once said in an article commemorating the author of the "Internationale" that no matter where a Communist goes, even in a foreign country, as long as he hears the "Internationale", he will find his comrades.
In my opinion, this is the identification function of "Internationale".
Similarly, no matter where they are, even at the ends of the earth, the people of the Chinese nation "miss their relatives more frequently during the festive season." During the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival, they will surely rise with patriotism and love for their hometown deep in their hearts.
Love, experience a complex of being a Chinese people and a sense of national identity.
The attributes of the four people are diverse.
Among them, the attribute of the nation should be regarded as one of the fundamental attributes of human beings.
The sense of national identity not only produces national cohesion, but also is an important basis for the germination of national emotions.
However, at the same time, we also see that while we carry forward and maintain our own traditional culture, we also have the ability and need to absorb foreign culture at different times and to different degrees.
For example, since the Ming Dynasty, we have learned and introduced Western astronomy and Western calendars well.
In the West, due to the introduction of the earth circle theory and the sun center theory, and the use of telescopes, the accuracy of astronomical observations and the accuracy of calendars have been greatly improved.
In China, establishing an accurate calendar has always been the pursuit of the supreme ruler who was "carried by heaven." Therefore, Western astronomy introduced by Western missionaries was immediately welcomed by the government and the public, triggering a craze to learn Western geometry and astronomy for a time.
Absorbing foreign culture and inheriting original traditions are not contradictory.
The tension formed by the two plays a very important role in creating new culture.
Therefore, we can see that many cultural systems have distinctive diverse characteristics.
In our national family, this diverse characteristic not only has the aspect of absorbing foreign culture, but also the aspect of integrating multiple ethnic cultures.
For example, in the United States, Indian groups have contributed their own Indian culture, and descendants of Poland, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other nations have also made their own cultural contributions.
The diversity of American culture has its own distinctive characteristics, and its ability to integrate is particularly strong.
Buddhism founded by an ancient Indian prince of Jingfan King was introduced into our country, followed a China path, and evolved into China Buddhism.
This religious belief, which has been completely China and has become its own tradition, has had a profound impact on China's social life since the Sui and Tang Dynasties and has become an integral part of China's traditional culture.
From another perspective, that is, precious cultural heritage has distinctive characteristics of sharing and can be enjoyed by different social groups and even different ethnic groups or countries.
It is precisely because of this sharing feature that it makes the protection of our intangible cultural heritage of great significance and global significance.
Only when the excellent national cultures of all countries in the world are fully and healthily developed; only when governments and the general public of all countries in the world seriously protect their excellent cultural traditions can there be the prerequisite and foundation for the development of human cultural diversity.
When we talk about "cultural heritage", we seem to regard it as an object that is frozen in time and space.
Moreover, when it comes to "protection", in our hearts, we often want it to remain this way.
From a theoretical perspective, there is a question of pursuing authenticity here.
It should be said that the authenticity of a thing cannot exist abstractly outside of specific time and space; at the same time, it cannot be understood outside of people's value judgment of things.
In most cases, intangible cultural heritage is not only a record of yesterday, a reality of today, but also a harbinger of tomorrow.
We often see that some cultural events are constantly mutating with the development and advancement of historical times, and some are eliminated and sent into history because they are no longer compatible with the new social living environment.
However, there are also quite a few things that continue to demonstrate their strong vitality or achieve new development through mutation.
As intelligent animals, humans have a strong cognitive need, which is not completely utilitarian.
Perhaps it can be said that human beings have increased their wisdom in cognition.
The cognition of cultural heritage that has entered history is, in a certain sense, also a kind of protection and will provide useful enlightenment for us to create the future.
We must pay special attention to those cultural heritage that has been ignored, precious, and endangered, but which implies unlimited development potential.In this sense, conservation is not about closing it in on a historical point in time, conservation is not about historical research in a library, nor is it about providing a museum with some kind of exhibit.
It is an organic part of our cultural construction system engineering, of course, it is only one of the organic parts.
If it is not placed properly, it will also bring counterproductive results.
We can see that in many parts of the country, especially in the vast rural areas and towns, especially in ethnic minority areas, the development of folk tourism, the so-called "development of folk resources" has become an industry that many people are keen to engage in.
In my personal opinion, as a means to improve people's lives in poverty-stricken areas, this is beyond reproach; on the other hand, from the perspective of the enjoyment-tourists, it can satisfy people's needs to understand the world, understand history, and recognize unique culture.
It is also reasonable.
Although cognition and curiosity, curiosity and curiosity are related, they are not the same thing.
People require recognition of known culture and known lifestyles, which is also the only way to develop their own culture.
That is why we have the so-called "opening the window to see the world" and "broadening our horizons".
However, fundamentally speaking, folk culture is closely related to people's lives and their spiritual world.
Customs and habits passed down from generation to generation regulate their lives and comfort their souls.
They are the basis for people to live and live.
In some places I have seen, I have not seriously thought about such an essential issue, but adopted a simple utilitarian and not far-sighted approach.
In some so-called "folk tourist spots", indigenous residents who were born and raised here for generations have been relocated, left behind houses, roads, and opened hotels, restaurants and commercial outlets to sell souvenirs that are uncertain whether they have local and ethnic characteristics.
There are no folk customs here, only goods remain.
In some places, although some folk exhibitions and folk song and dance performances are held in several venues a day to attract tourists, in fact, these performances are often "shows" and are gradually away from real folk life.
This practice separates folk cultural traditions from real life, changes their original functions, and makes them commoditized, objectified, staged, and fragmented, resulting in the hollowing out of the original traditional values.
It is difficult for us to regard it as a folk custom anymore.
I am not opposed to using traditional culture to meet people's cognitive needs and improve the living standards of folk subjects.
The key to the problem lies in how to perform.
During the performance process, the identity function of cultural heritage to enhance national emotions and love national culture should be given full play.
If we perform wedding ceremonies, deliver wallets, drink Jiaoya wine, and celebrate the water-splashing festival day after day all year round, these activities will lose their original meaning and their meaning as a way of life over time.
Many families have family photo albums.
Relatives and friends come to the house and show them to him.
This will enhance each other's feelings and relive beautiful historical memories.
However, if someone took it out on the street and charged it for people to view, the significance of this album would no longer exist.
It can be further said that if we not only treat family photo albums as commodities, but also bring our wives, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and children to line up in the window for people to watch and take photos, will our lives continue to exist?
With the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guiding principle, looking at issues from the perspective of cultural strategy, and thinking and analyzing issues from the perspective of overall, macro, historical and human cultural development, we will only achieve satisfactory results when we are engaged in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
This article was originally published in "Folk Culture Forum", No.
4, 2004.
Please refer to the original print publication for annotations.