[Tian Qing] Folk culture in intangible cultural heritage protection
● Ancient traditions, including our folk customs, are all weak cultures in the face of modernization.
If you don't protect it or promote it particularly, it will disappear, and the speed of disappearance is as fast as the speed of our economic development.
● When a nation moves towards modernization, especially when culture moves towards modernization, it must have cultural consciousness.
Cultural consciousness is a prerequisite for protecting cultural diversity and protecting intangible cultural heritage.
What is the relationship between folk culture and intangible cultural heritage? Faced with traditional culture, anyone's knowledge seems superficial, and any classification will bring problems.
For example, my country's national list of intangible cultural heritage divides intangible cultural heritage into ten categories, including oral literature, traditional music, traditional drama, traditional art and handicrafts, traditional medicine, traditional folk arts, etc., as well as folk customs.
According to this classification, intangible cultural heritage covers folk culture, or folk culture is a major item of intangible cultural heritage.
Folk culture in turn includes some categories of intangible cultural heritage, such as singing opera during the New Year.
Is traditional drama part of folk customs? The Chinese New Year is not only about acting, but also window grilles, pairs, traditional food and traditional handicrafts are part of the intangible cultural heritage.
The Mongolian Nadam Conference is a folk event, including singing and playing, horse racing, archery, and wrestling.
These events are included in the classification of intangible cultural heritage.
For example, folk songs and horse-head fiddle are classified into traditional music.
Wrestling and horse racing are included in traditional sports.
If these activities are left away, Nadam will not be called Nadam.
Therefore, folk customs include all the contents of intangible cultural heritage.
If folklore is all customs, customs and related cultural forms of a nation, then the concept of folk culture is too big, including almost all intangible cultural heritage.
For a long time in the past, some scholars would regard China's folk culture and all traditional cultures, including folk customs, as a decadent and declining culture, and even as the root cause of the more than 100 years of humiliation history of our country and nation, believing that it is the "dross" in culture that affects the progress of the nation.
It cannot be denied that some folk customs do contain feudal elements.
When dealing with traditional culture, our attitude must be dialectical and objective.
Of course, don't protect dross.
But what is dross? What is the essence? Who will decide? Not only does time make people have completely different views on dross, but space also creates different understandings.
Different eras, different regions, and different people have different requirements for beauty, and their aesthetic concepts are also very different.
When human experiences and concepts are repeated, modern people should at least have an awareness that culture is diverse, and one's dislikes may not necessarily be dross.
Traditional philosophy emphasizes tolerance and tolerance, measurement and self-cultivation.
How to treat these cultures? I think we should protect it first, but protection must also be divided into levels, including preservation, inheritance, and of course promotion.
Some things are essential, but you can only preserve them, and you can't even pass them on.
For example, many cultural and artistic forms closely related to production methods and life styles will disappear with the disappearance of production and life styles.
China is running towards modernization at a speed never before seen by mankind.
During this running, as China, we cannot drop the things that our grandparents have stuffed in their personal pockets without knowing it.
The price of modernization cannot be the end of the Chinese nation's own cultural traditions.
Protecting intangible cultural heritage and traditional folk culture is to protect the roots and soul of our nation and to protect the DNA of our national spirit.
The second generation of Chinese in the United States is called "bananas", which means that only their appearance is Chinese, and their thoughts and concepts are all Americanized.
This "banana" phenomenon deserves our deep thought.
We should be soberly aware that the purpose of modernization is not to turn China into like Americans.
As astonishing as the speed of economic development today is, how astonishing is the speed at which our traditional culture is disappearing.
Ancient traditions, including our folk customs, are all weak cultures in the face of modernization.
If you don't protect them and promote them particularly, they will disappear.
There is a philosophical proposition called "no establishment unless broken".
This proposition can be discussed in the field of philosophy, but it is a big problem in urban construction! Why does it have to be broken before it can be established? Is it possible for destruction and establishment to coexist? Must we tear down Beijing's courtyard houses and build high-rise buildings? Almost all human cities with ancient civilizations are in two parts, including Rome, Cairo, and Delhi.
I saw a shocking article in the newspaper a few days ago titled: "China has a history of five thousand years, but there are no houses that are five thousand years old." This is the lesson.
In addition to the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, and Dragon Boat Festival, you can celebrate Valentine's Day if you want.
Why do you have to remove traditional festivals in China? Can't I add a new one? It is not too late to realize it now.
A nation, especially when facing modernization, must have cultural consciousness.
Cultural consciousness means re-seeking its cultural positioning and finding its lost self.
Times are indeed changing.
The peasant singer "Rising Sun Masculine" sings with intensity that is rare in the city, even a little rough, but it is very bold and unconstrained.
However, this "bold and unconstrained" is not the bold and unconstrained of Qin Opera or Lao Opera, nor the bleakness of Hebei Bangzi.
What they were holding in their hands was not banhu, but guitars.
The reality behind this phenomenon is that not only urban youth are estranged from traditional culture, but with the arrival of a large number of migrant workers in cities and the empty nest in rural areas, all our traditional cultures produced during the agricultural civilization period are facing being forgotten.
destiny.
Many folk customs are wonderful and created by the talents of our ancestors.
They not only contain their joys, sorrows, their heart rate and breathing, but also the blood passed down from generation to generation.
They are full of beauty and rationality.
Therefore, I believe that all intangible cultural heritage in my country, including folk customs, should be preserved first.
Kunqu Opera is only liked by the elderly but not by the young.
What should I do? The way of thinking of most theater troupe leaders is: We need to innovate and try to make young people like it, we need to introduce new things, use guitar to play, add electronic organs, and replace ink and ink music with rock rhythm.
Don't you think Kunqu Opera is slow? Let's hurry.
You can't understand just singing.
Let's add dance and street dance.
To this, my answer is two sentences-the first sentence is "You will grow old too", and the second sentence is "Kunqu Opera has been waiting for you for 600 years, I don't care about waiting for you another 30 years." I mean, when you have culture, when you have a state of mind, when you come to find Kunqu Opera, Kunqu Opera will still be here waiting for you; if I change now, turn ink and ink cavity into rock and roll, and qudi into guitar, now I will cater to you, but when you get old and want to find the beauty of grace, tranquility, and elegance, where will you go to find it? China people must have this cultural confidence.
At the same time, they must have foresight and vision to know what is truly good.
(The author is the director of the Music Research Institute of China Academy of Art)