[Liu Xicheng] Preface to Intangible Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice

Since 1973, when the Bolivian government submitted a proposal to UNESCO to seek solutions to the protection of folk creations, which has received response from UNESCO and member states and has continued to attach great importance to it, the protection of folk creations has increasingly become an international cultural trend and the responsibility of all governments.

On the basis of the "Draft Recommendation for the Protection of Folk Works" formulated at the 25th UNESCO General Conference in October 1989, the 32nd UNESCO General Conference adopted the "Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage" Convention on October 17, 2003.

Since then, as a contracting party, China's folk cultural protection work has merged into the torrent of intangible cultural heritage protection by international organizations.

With the steady and orderly development of government protection work and the improvement of social recognition, the movement to protect folk culture has become an important symbol of China's cultural rejuvenation movement.

Just as UNESCO's documents renamed "folk creation" to "intangible cultural heritage", in order to facilitate international exchanges and dialogue, my country's government documents no longer use "folk culture", a local familiar and familiar word that is well known to all women and children, in place of the idiom, and accept the new term "intangible cultural heritage" and the concepts it contains used in international documents.

The impact of changes in ideas is far-reaching and of great significance.

The rise of my country's folk cultural/intangible cultural heritage rescue and protection movement has also involved me, a cultural person who "hides in a small building and forms a unity".

Although I am an old man who has retired for many years, driven and inspired by the trend of thought to protect folk culture, since 2002, I have temporarily interrupted the writing of literary criticism and prose essays and the research on special topics, and picked up the profession of folk culture that I have engaged in many years ago, mainly folk literature), participated in the team of intangible cultural heritage protection, and devoted most of my energy to the protection, inspection, consultation and theoretical exploration of intangible cultural heritage.

Sometimes they participate in the discussion and formulation of a certain document, review and identify application projects and lists, review and identify inheritors, and demonstrate a certain project.

Sometimes they are invited to training courses held by intangible cultural heritage protection centers in some provinces and cities or to China Art Research Institute, Central Cultural Management Cadre College and other professional institutions, and sometimes they provide consulting assistance and inspection supervision for the application and protection of local intangible cultural heritage projects.

More, based on their own knowledge accumulation, personal experience and professional experience, they engage in theoretical research and write articles on intangible cultural heritage, so as to promote the national and cultural value of intangible cultural heritage and the significance of carrying out protection work.

I hope that I can do my part to improve the public's "cultural awareness" and improve the lagging situation of the "intangible cultural heritage" theory.

Under my country's political system, the team of intangible cultural heritage protection workers is composed of two parts: one part of the main force is cultural officials and cadres at all levels; the other part is folk art and academic researchers in non-governmental organizations, universities, social sciences, literature and art, traditional Chinese medicine and other research institutions.

These two groups of personnel each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so they should learn from each other's strengths and gradually integrate them.

I very much hope that we folk literature and art theorists who are outside the government system will take the lead in breaking through the ice of ideology that has been formed over the years that equates culture with politics.

If this ice is not broken, it will be difficult for the protection of intangible cultural heritage to advance in a down-to-earth manner in a truly scientific sense and a truly cultural sense, and to do a good job in this national cause that is related to the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese culture for generations.

Of course, under modern social conditions, roadblocks are not only at this end of the ideology.

The pervasive trend of thought and behavior of industrialization and commercialization may pose a greater threat to intangible cultural heritage.) Therefore, since 2003, I have ventured to propose at some meetings where I was able to attend and later published articles such as "Intangible Cultural Heritage and National Cultural Spirit","Cultural Nature of Intangible Cultural Heritage", etc.).

This view has been repeatedly repeated: my country's cultural research and "intangible cultural heritage" protection were launched despite serious lack of theoretical preparation.

We question the long-standing tendency to equate culture with politics and suggest that our "intangible cultural heritage" protection work be placed under the guidance of the cultural theory of Marxist historical materialism.

Xinhuanet published an editorial on the article "Cultural Development and Research Needs a Mature Theoretical System" on January 24, 2006, saying: "The 321st issue of the" Learning Times "sponsored by the Central Party School of China published an article" Cultural Development and Research Needs a Mature Theoretical System ".

The article points out that in terms of the protection of folk culture of the entire nation, theoretical preparation is seriously insufficient.

There has been a long time since there has been a binary opposition concept that equates culture with politics and is either good or bad.

How to correctly understand the laws of development and evolution of culture is very necessary.

The most basic one is to develop while inheriting.

Cultural research must catch up.

Cultural research must be developed and deepened based on on-site investigations, and a cultural theoretical system with China characteristics." The editors of "Learning Times" and the editorial commentary of Xinhuanet have given me recognition and support for theoretical exploration, which inspired me, a "marginal person" who lives a life of idle clouds and wild cranes, to continue to participate in reality and carry out theoretical exploration.

Over the past few years, I have successively written dozens of articles and speeches on intangible cultural heritage.

These articles or speeches have been published in various newspapers and periodicals, and some have also attracted the attention of the cultural and academic circles.

The characteristics of these articles are that they are written in response to the needs of "intangible cultural heritage" protection work.

To a certain extent, they have got rid of the academic style of "sitting and discussing Tao" and have strong pertinence and realism.

The manuscripts in this book "Intangible Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice" were selected from such articles as mine.

The publication of this book may have some reference role in the protection, census, filing, database construction, inheritors identification, cadre training of intangible cultural heritage that are being carried out in full swing in various places, as well as the discipline construction of intangible cultural heritage that seems to have not yet been put on the agenda.

The leaders and editors of Xueyuan Publishing House are old friends of mine for many years.

We have co-edited and published two series of books,"Chinese Folk Literature Collection" and "Three Legged Black Literature Collection".

Since its establishment, the club has always contributed to the protection of intangible cultural heritage and discipline construction, and has made great contributions to the development of my country's folklore cause, attracting world attention.

Thanks to Xueyuan Publishing House for including my topic in the publishing plan and putting a lot of hard work into it.

Author on February 4, 2009, the beginning of spring

Liu Xicheng: "Intangible Cultural Heritage: Theory and Practice"

Publishing House: Xueyuan Press

Words: 500 thousand words

Edition: Beijing, May 2009, 1st edition

Pricing: 56 yuan