[Liu Xicheng] It's the right time to change ideas--Rethinking about cultural concepts
[Abstract] The protection of intangible cultural heritage in my country is facing the problem of changing concepts from top to bottom.
In the past, the cultural concepts we adhered to were too narrow, and many projects in UNESCO documents were not within the scope of cultural work in the past.
The local shortcomings such as emphasizing declaration and neglecting protection, image engineering, and development protection stem from narrow cultural concepts.
Tendencies such as emphasizing performing arts and neglecting folk knowledge still exist.
Traditional handicrafts have received initial attention, but production is still a dilemma for traditional culture, which is increasingly prominent in front of us.
How to understand the knowledge and practice of nature and the universe is still silent and is an issue that needs special discussion.
The criterion for judging the value of intangible cultural heritage should be based on whether the culture is compatible with the social needs of the time and place and the needs of mankind itself.
[Keywords] Transformation; cultural concepts; rethink
[China Map Classification No.]C912
[Literature identification code] A [Article number]1001-5558 (2009)-0108 - 07
When I first arrived in Shanghai yesterday, I received an invitation from Liu Jian, chairman of the "Forum" and deputy secretary of the Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio and Television, asking me to come to the meeting for exchanges.
The concept of the World Expo is very big.
For me, it requires hard study, thinking and understanding.
Although I hurriedly observed the large-scale Shanghai People's Expo exhibition and I still have some thoughts, I can't say I have mature opinions without serious preparation.
Below, under the framework of "CIIE-Expo"-"China Elements" of the "Theme Forum" of this CIIE, we will talk about some personal thoughts on the transformation of intangible cultural heritage protection.
It is completely exploratory.
I will teach it to friends, and welcome criticism and correction.
Too narrow cultural concepts
The "Shanghai World Expo" to be held in 2010 is a major event that attracts the attention of people across the country.
From the "People's Expo" to the "World Expo", intangible cultural heritage is an indispensable element and role in China, because the intangible cultural heritage of a nation or a city can best reflect its cultural spirit and demonstrate its overall and comprehensive cultural nature and cultural traditions.
Regarding the protection of intangible cultural heritage, which has progressed to this day, I believe that an important and unavoidable issue facing the government and scholars is a question of changing concepts.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage in our country was carried out by the government first accepted UNESCO's concepts, and then scholars followed suit.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have done a lot of work on the protection, collection, recording, registration, and filing of folk culture.
We have fruitful results and historical experience.
But we must also note that the cultural concepts we have followed for a long time are very narrow and have even fallen into misunderstandings.
The task of the national cultural administrative authority is actually mainly the management of professional art, with innovation as the basic starting point.
However, the collection and inheritance of traditional culture, especially lower-level folk culture, has basically not entered the vision of government work.
On October 17, 2003, UNESCO adopted and promulgated the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
On April 8, 2004, my government (Notice No.
11 of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance) The "National and Folk Culture Protection Project" was launched.
On August 28, 2004, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved the "Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage".
On March 26, 2005, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in my Country", which is the first time to use the new term "intangible cultural heritage" in my government documents.
Used to replace the usual "national and folk culture" in the past; as a result, a new term and new concept-intangible cultural heritage-began to enter our political life and ordinary people.
From "ethnic and folk culture" to "intangible cultural heritage", both government authorities at all levels and their staff, as well as scholars and ordinary people, are facing a problem of transforming cultural concepts.
The Convention's definition of "intangible cultural heritage" includes the following five items: first, oral traditions and forms of expression, including language as a medium of intangible cultural heritage; second, performing arts; third, social practice, etiquette, festivals; fourth, knowledge and practice about nature and the universe; fifth, traditional handicrafts.
The above five items constitute UNESCO's concept of intangible cultural heritage.
In contrast to this concept of UNESCO, the situation in my country in the past is roughly that the first "oral tradition"(that is, what we often call "folk literature"), the third item "social practice, etiquette, festival activities", the fourth item "knowledge and practice about nature and the universe", and the fifth item "traditional handicrafts" are not in the vision of the Ministry of Culture and the provincial cultural departments (bureaus) in charge of culture.
Therefore, can it be said that the government's cultural concepts are extremely narrow, and a large number of things that should belong to culture have been thrown away and abandoned? From the perspective of "government-led", my country started the national and folk cultural protection project in 2004, to August 24, 2004, when the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ratified the Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and to March 26, 2005, when the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in my Country", it is undeniable that we carried out this work despite a serious lag in theoretical preparation.
Over the past few years, we have made achievements that we are proud of.
We have held exhibitions of intangible cultural heritage achievements, organized large-scale performance of "intangible cultural heritage", and announced the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage lists...
As Secretary Liu mentioned just now, what Premier Wen brought during his visit to Japan was not innovative artistic programs from the usual professional art performance groups, but "performing arts" projects in intangible cultural heritage, which were highly praised by the Japanese government and opposition.
It also demonstrates the achievements and charm of the protection of intangible cultural heritage of various ethnic groups in China on the international stage.
Despite such extraordinary achievements, it seems that it cannot be said that we are quite in place in the theoretical research and protection practice of intangible cultural heritage, and have fundamentally changed the situation of theoretical lag.
The "cultural consciousness" of the whole people, especially The "cultural consciousness" of cultural cadres at all levels has been greatly improved, and it has adapted to and satisfied the correct concept of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Some of the concerns expressed by scholars and the media, such as the increasingly serious tendencies of emphasizing declaration over protection, image projects, and exploitative destruction, are precisely the lack of "cultural consciousness", the lack of correct cultural concepts and "intangible cultural heritage" concept guidance.
reflection.
a tendency to emphasize performing arts
From the government level, we have accepted the UNESCO Convention and its concepts, but judging from our practice over the past few years, we have not completely changed our concepts, or there is still a long way to go between our protection practices and the concepts of the United Nations.
For example, we attach greater importance to the "performing art forms" part of intangible cultural heritage, while we hold a more negative attitude towards areas involving ideology such as the third item (such as rituals and festivals belonging to folk customs), the fourth item (such as totem beliefs and folk beliefs), and cultural space (such as the worship of secular gods in temple fairs).
This is not only inconsistent with the concept of the UNESCO Convention, but still adheres to a non-materialist cultural view.
As the review of the first batch of national lists was coming to an end, a shocking and lesson occurred: A national folk narrative poem project that was signed by a provincial expert group, reported to the Ministry of Culture by the Provincial Department of Culture, and passed the review by a national expert review team, suddenly a provincial leading cadre intervened, making this national long narrative poem project eulogizing the origin and national totem, a national totem was pulled down due to his intervention and thus disappeared into oblivion.
Perhaps this leading cadre was out of good intentions, but he did not do good things.
The essence of this incident is that among some leading cadres, the historical materialism advocated by Communists has not been truly established.
Paying attention to performing art forms while neglecting or underestimating intangible cultural heritage in fields such as folk life and etiquette, and ignoring or underestimating intangible cultural heritage in fields such as knowledge about nature and the universe is a cultural concept that we have long adhered to.
This narrow and somewhat erroneous cultural concept still remains more or less in the minds of many leading cadres of cultural work who are in charge of it.
The rich and precious "folk knowledge" left to us by our ancestors, such as astronomy, farming, hunting, nomadic, sailing, calendar, feng shui, physical fitness, ancestor worship and folk rituals, have nurtured generations of Chinese descendants, accumulated and enriched Chinese traditional culture, and cultivated the Chinese nation known as the "land of etiquette".
However, unfortunately, these fields have rarely received the attention and exploration of cultural departments at all levels.
Not long ago, at a meeting in the traditional Chinese medicine community to discuss "intangible cultural heritage", I heard Liu Changhua, director of the Institute of Documentation of the Academy of Chinese Medicine, say that Comrade Zhou Heping, Vice Minister of Culture in charge of "intangible cultural heritage" work, saw foreign and our culture in Paris.
After he called him late at night and said that the guqin and Kunqu opera we declared were still small toys and were not enough to represent China's traditional culture.
When we declared the next batch of world intangible cultural heritage, the first thing to consider is traditional Chinese medicine! This shows how important it is to change cultural concepts at the leadership level! I recall that when I participated in the drafting of the "Work Manual for the Survey of China Ethnic and Folk Culture Protection Project" in 2005, the knowledge and practice of nature and the universe were still very hazy in the minds of us so-called experts.
Everyone thought hard and finally came up with a category name for "folk knowledge." Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture should be regarded as intangible culture.
At that time, even the comrades from the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine were not very active in protecting traditional Chinese medicine and applying for the "intangible cultural heritage" list.
Two years later, traditional medicine has now become a major project for the protection of my country's intangible cultural heritage.
It is a large project that should be declared as soon as possible for the world's intangible cultural heritage.
This shows that from leaders to academic circles, everyone's concepts are changing.
As the concepts change, our practice will gradually become more practical.
Is it production or traditional culture?
Let's talk about my understanding of traditional handicrafts.
In the past, traditional handicrafts were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Light Industry and the Second Light Industry Bureau.
They were only regarded as a kind of production.
From cooperatives to state-owned factories, from state-owned factories to individuals, they were divided, combined, combined, and divided.
They were all based on the amount of foreign exchange exchanged, and were not regarded as culture.
The handicrafts that were passed down and passed on through word of mouth and heart were not extracted and highlighted from handicraft production; In this field, the departments in charge of culture and their affiliated research institutions have always been absent, lacking both professional talents and knowledge in these fields.
Over the past few decades, although the government has done a lot of work, the path of inheritance of traditional handicrafts has been bumpy and stormy.
Many precious skills have quietly disappeared over the long historical journey, and are still alive, but they are also declining for various reasons.
Some are even in an endangered state.
Information about the breakdown of inheritance and the disappearance of skills is heard from time to time.
Now, the "intangible cultural heritage" protection of traditional handicrafts has been initially rolled out, and experts from all fields have been mobilized and united, with high enthusiasm, which is a good thing.
In terms of arts and crafts, in recent years, the National Development and Reform Commission has presided over the selection of several batches of arts and crafts masters.
Among these people with the title of masters of arts and crafts, some are inheritors who have contributed to the inheritance of traditional skills.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued a statement announcing that the protection of "Chinese time-honored brands" must enter the scope of "intangible cultural heritage" protection, calling for and standardizing the application of time-honored brands for national lists.
There are a large number of "Chinese time-honored brands" in large cities, many of which have been lost, and some are still vital.
The author believes that the handicrafts in time-honored brands generally include two major parts: one is in the manufacturing field, such as weaving, brewing, handicrafts, etc.; the other is in the food culture field, such as cuisine, cakes, snacks, etc.
China's food culture has a long history and valuable traditions, and is a treasure of Chinese traditional culture.
But what type of intangible cultural heritage should the time-honored food culture brands be classified into? There were quite differences.
I personally agree with the opinion that in addition to projects with more complex skills (such as Quanjude's hanging roast duck and Bianyifang's braised roast duck), other skills are relatively simple and closely related to folk life (such as Beijing's bean juice, etc.) may be more appropriately placed in the folk category.
Such issues have yet to be demonstrated by experts organized by the Ministry of Culture or the Ministry of Commerce.
In the final analysis, the core of the problem of traditional handicrafts lies in just production or traditional culture?
Knowledge and practice about nature and the universe
As for the understanding and handling of "knowledge and practice about nature and the universe", the existing problems are even more prominent.
I think that so far, we have only taken the first step.
From a leadership perspective, our attitude is still too ambiguous and our actions are too slow.
The reason why this problem is more prominent is that on cultural issues, we have long used the binary opposition methodology of "essence" and "dross" and contemporary values as the criteria for judging and evaluating culture.
History has proved that this dualistic methodology and judging traditional culture or intangible cultural heritage based on contemporary values are inappropriate and often hinder our correct evaluation of traditional culture or intangible cultural heritage.
As mentioned above, part of the "knowledge and practice about nature and the universe" is ideological; but there is also a considerable part of it that is not ideological, such as China's traditional knowledge about astronomical phenomena, calendar calculations, navigation, farming, hunting, etc.
However, unfortunately, in the first batch of national lists declared and reviewed in 2005, only the item "Li people's wood-drilling skills and fire-making skills" was included, and it was also placed in the category of "traditional handicrafts"(VIII-87), rather than belonging to the category of "folk knowledge".
However, many mature farming knowledge, astronomical knowledge, etc.
have not been studied by the cultural community from the cultural perspective of "intangible cultural heritage".
Whether China's feng shui, qigong, etc.
should be included in intangible cultural heritage still seems to be silent.
The concept of feng shui is still very prevalent even in modern society.
An academic seminar on feng shui was held in the Great Hall of the People, and this matter once aroused widespread discussion in the media and the Internet.
In the classrooms of some well-known science and engineering universities, Feng Shui courses are offered.
There are numerous publications on feng shui.
In short, feng shui theory and practice have attracted the attention of the whole society.
The relationship between human beings and nature is to attempt to control and conquer nature and let nature serve people; the other is to conform to nature and live in harmony with nature.
It is one-sided to emphasize only one aspect and exclude the other.
The reason why the concept of feng shui has been accompanied by human beings for a long time reflects human beings 'unremitting pursuit of adapting to and living harmoniously with nature.
Of course, during the process of inheritance and development, feng shui concepts and customs have been more or less utilized and transformed by scientists, mixed with and developed many negative factors, which should be studied and distinguished.
However, in the application and review of our "Level 4" intangible cultural heritage list, we have not commented on feng shui, a folk knowledge about nature and the universe, and so far there has been no progress.
There is no doubt that it is incorrect cultural concepts at work.Another area similar to the issue of feng shui is the attitude about "qi".
At a meeting in the Chinese medicine community to discuss intangible cultural heritage, the author heard an academician propose: The concept of "qi" is a major difference between Chinese and Western cultures, and the cultural nature of "qigong" should be re-understood.
As one of the intangible cultural heritage, in terms of understanding of nature and the universe, folk understanding contains a lot of wisdom and truth, which needs to be explored seriously and scientifically.
Of course, there may also be some manifestations of mysterious thinking.
It should be noted that science's mastery and understanding of nature will always be limited, and places where science has not reached are always spaces where mysterious thinking is active.
As for the intangible cultural heritage mixed with mysterious thinking, we cannot simply erase it with "feudal dross" and repeat the "left" mistakes of the past.
Instead, we should recognize the people's choices, but at the same time conduct scientific discussions and clarifications.
Contemporary, there are also some large-scale "cultural spaces" that are spread all over urban and rural areas and widely inherited by the public, such as secular festivals with sacrificial rituals and folk beliefs, national festivals with the purpose of displaying the origin of the nation or national totems,"temple fairs","song fairs", etc., one of the important reasons why it is difficult to pass the threshold of provincial or national intangible cultural heritage lists is that it involves the forbidden area of folk beliefs and mysterious thinking.
If cultural elements involving mysterious thinking such as totem beliefs, soul concepts, witchcraft and taboos are to be castrated out, then the intangible cultural heritage that was produced and developed in prehistoric times and the farming era but is still passed down from generation to generation in today's society will no longer exist, and doing so is not historical materialism.
Recently, in discussions on folk religion, scholars pointed out that folk religion is an important part of building a harmonious society.
The positive role of folk religion in building a harmonious society should be fully affirmed and should not become a restricted area for evaluating intangible cultural heritage.
In the past, our understanding of culture was too narrow.
From the government level, performing art forms are generally only regarded as culture or the mainstream of culture.
From an academic perspective, the documentary tradition based on words is generally regarded as culture (the so-called grand tradition).
What the two cultural positions have in common is that they adopt an indifferent attitude towards intangible cultural heritage that has been passed down orally, from generation to generation, and without written records.
Now, we are faced with the problem of changing concepts and concepts.
Governments at all levels need to change concepts, and academic circles also need to change concepts.
It is necessary to gradually establish a cultural concept with China characteristics.
Up to now, we do not have our own "Theory of Culture".
The "Theory of Culture" we now regard as a classic is either Malinowski's "Theory of Culture" translated in the 1940s, or a cultural anthropological theory in the contemporary West (mainly the United States).
Although these works may enlighten us or learn from methods, they cannot solve China's cultural problems.
China culture is a diverse and integrated culture with a long history, multi-ethnic, diverse and multi-layered.
Its complexity is unmatched by the culture of any country or nation.
How can the "prescriptions" provided by those wise foreign scholars who have not investigated, studied or experienced China culture solve the practical problems of China culture? However, our own local cultural research, as mentioned earlier, is generally the research and elucidation of literature based on words, with Confucian culture as the mainstream, and does not involve the civilian culture and folk culture that the pioneers of the May 4th Movement culture paid attention to.
Literature and the intangible cultural heritage that are being carried out now.
This academic trend of thought is contrary to the current trend of intangible cultural heritage protection in our country and the world with the purpose of protecting cultural diversity and sustainable development.
Professor Ji Xianlin's recent remarks on "Great Chinese Studies" are a heavy blow to the "New Chinese Studies" faction.
Criteria for value judgment
Another issue in changing the concept is how to change from the concept of "national and folk culture" that we had established in the past to the new concept of "intangible cultural heritage" in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
As mentioned earlier, in my country's situation, the government is in line with the Convention first, and scholars follow up later.
When the proper name "intangible cultural heritage" was introduced, we had no time to do detailed research work, so some scholars said that "national and folk culture" and "intangible cultural heritage" are two synonymous terms.
After careful study, we found that these are two words with different meanings and embody two different concepts.
In the past, the definition of folk culture in my country's academic circles roughly referred to the culture passed down from generation to generation by the lower-class people through oral and spiritual teachings.
The mainstream consciousness in our academic circles in the past was to advocate that culture has a class nature.
This view has been held almost since the May 4th Movement, and there has been no major change.
By the 1950s, influenced by the Soviet Union, this view had been strengthened.
Folk culture (mainly folk literature) was once called "people's creation" or "oral creation of working people." Zheng Zhenduo's view of "popular literature" included the city's urban culture into folk literature, so he was criticized and said that he was an academic authority of the bourgeoisie.
Once UNESCO's definition was released, it completely subverted our traditional concepts and definitions of "folk culture".
The definition of intangible cultural heritage in the UNESCO Convention does not pay attention to the social status of the authors and possessors of "intangible cultural heritage" at all, but only emphasizes the two characteristics of being passed down from generation to generation, and being created and recreated in communities and groups.
and sustainable development.
Of course, China has never had a community in its national establishment, only provinces, prefectures, counties, townships (towns), and villages.
However, it now appears in the documents on the protection of intangible cultural heritage, borrowing the academic concept of Western cultural anthropology.
These two major characteristics (standards) are very different from our past understanding of culture and basically overturn our past concepts of folk culture.
Therefore, in this intangible cultural heritage protection work, some imperial culture, court culture and religious culture that have been lost to or declined to the people have entered the national intangible cultural heritage list with almost no obstacles.
Handicraft skills, such as cloisonne, jade carving, tooth carving, cloud brocade, mending embroidery, pan-brocade, etc.; music, such as Beijing Zhihua Temple Beijing Music, Beijing West Banner Music, Zhonghe Shao Music, etc., some imperial gatherings, Lao gatherings, incense gatherings, etc.
These projects were not included in the past "folk culture" surveys and research we conducted.
This is a big change in cultural concepts.
Culture is created and enjoyed collectively.
The only criterion for judging the value of culture is whether the emergence, development, prosperity and decline of the culture are compatible with the needs of society at that time and place and the needs of mankind itself.
Anything that adapts is vital, that is, progressive; anything that does not adapt will gradually decline.
Attempting to judge intangible cultural heritage with today's values is not historical materialism.
In terms of its cultural nature, the intangible cultural heritage we are talking about now mainly refers to agricultural civilization and spiritual culture under the long patriarchal social system.(Of course, a small part is left over from prehistoric society or nomadic society.) Generally speaking, this group culture passed down through oral and spiritual transmission is the "gene bank" of our nation's traditional culture and the cultural context of the nation.
It contains The wisdom and experience of our predecessors embody our national spirit and national character, and is very valuable.
However, with the development of the times, especially today's social transformation brought about by the rapid development of globalization, modernization, urbanization, and informatization, the intangible cultural heritage that was originally adapted to the conditions of farming society has gradually and partially lost its survival and development conditions have become fragile and declining, some have disappeared, and some have mutated.
The purpose of protecting intangible cultural heritage is to use possible ways and methods to retain the "roots" of our nation, maintain cultural diversity as much as possible, and enable sustainable development of culture.
Cultural diversity and sustainable development are the starting point and purpose of "intangible cultural heritage" protection.
This concept is recognized around the world.
The change of concept is a requirement of the times.
It not only directly affects the protection of my country's intangible cultural heritage, but also provides a new perspective on the constituent "element" of intangible cultural heritage from the "People's Expo" to the "World Expo".
We have seen many intangible cultural heritage objects and objects from the CIIE.
Although there are eye-catching highlights every time, it should be said that they are all isolated existences and have not given the audience a complete and distinct impression of the cultural character and cultural atmosphere of the metropolis over the past century.
Shanghai's intangible cultural heritage, in Shanghai's traditional culture, not only maintains its own independent character and characteristics, to Shanghai culture to influence and infiltrate, but also obviously by the so-called "Shanghai School Culture" strong influence or has some characteristics of "Shanghai School Culture", and with this from other regional cultures.
The new concept of intangible cultural heritage provides us with a new perspective.
As a representative cultural symbol of the "China Elements" of the future "World Expo", the intangible cultural heritage of China and Shanghai will impress the world with its complete and distinctive image and character.
June 12, 2007
Note: This article is a speech delivered by the author at the "Shanghai People's Expo Forum" on June 12, 2007.
(Published in Northwest Ethnic Studies, No.
2, 2009)