[Liu Tieliang] Intangible Cultural Heritage: As a Development Topic
From the perspective of coordinated development of economy and culture, many intangible cultural heritage is actually culture under development and change, otherwise it will have no practical value.
The discourse of protecting "cultural heritage" is currently mainly guided and managed by governments at all levels.
On the one hand, in order to maintain and strengthen the identity of the nation state, and on the other hand, in order to enjoy certain original patents in the development of cultural industries, administrative agencies at all levels have established different categories of cultural heritage lists.
In fact, during this action, to a certain extent, the motivation for competing for cultural sovereignty is far greater than the awareness of fulfilling the responsibility to protect.
Combine cultural protection with exploration of social development models
After the country proposed a policy to protect "intangible cultural heritage", folk culture, which was originally exchanged and influenced among various regions and ethnic groups, has been divided into who invented the culture, with the purpose of competing for the invention of these cultures.
rights.
In this case, a very important purpose of protecting cultural heritage-to strengthen mutual exchanges and understanding among cultures by preserving these important cultural forms-is distorted.
Competition for intangible cultural heritage is driven by strong economic interests.
Once promoted, most cultural heritage quickly becomes the brand of merchants or becomes a commodity in cultural industries such as tourism.
This exposes that culture has been too much tied to money and has become a vassal of money.
It also exposes that in the planning of social development, the indicators of economic development suppress the indicators of cultural development.
Therefore, the protection of culture cannot be limited to culture itself, but must be combined with the exploration of social development models.
Only by correctly choosing the social development model can we get rid of this cycle of protection, the more likely it is to harm.
From the perspective of coordinated development of economy and culture, many intangible cultural heritage is actually culture under development and change, otherwise it will have no practical value.
The meaning and method of protecting intangible cultural heritage may be completely different from protecting cultural heritage such as cultural relics, sites, and ancient books.
Many intangible cultural heritage cannot be fixed or sent to museums.
For most intangible cultural heritage, it is not enough to protect it by preserving its objects, materials and performance forms.
It is even more necessary to allow this culture to advance with people's lives and develop with the development of society.
Some people protect intangible cultural heritage in order to overcome the cultural crisis.
In particular, they see the phenomenon of one-sided pursuit of material benefits but lack of spiritual pursuits, and attempt to change the cultural status quo by protecting some disappearing cultures.
However, this one-sided approach that focuses on protection rather than development cannot achieve this original intention.
Local society protects folk culture by protecting its common historical memory
We should promote the construction of public culture in regional societies towards the goal of comprehensive and coordinated development of economy, society and culture.
Under this goal, we should reasonably protect folk culture with regional social identity significance.
Practice can only be carried out by people in various places, because the natural and social environment, development conditions, goals and strategies are very different from place to place, and the people's choices and changes in folk culture will also be very different.
Foreigners must consult with local people and respect their choices for the protection of local folk culture.
It should be both universally carried out and protected folk culture according to local conditions, which should be the direction of future protection of intangible cultural heritage.
Cultural protection policies that fail to respect the development aspirations of local people will inevitably conflict with the independent cultural protection actions of local people.
In fact, long before the general public proposed the concept of intangible cultural heritage, they had been trying their best to preserve, restore and use the folk culture they were familiar with in the process of developing their hometown economy.
Of course, they were also reasonably changing these folk cultures.
This situation is completely beyond the subjective imagination of some outsiders.
For a local society, protecting folk culture means protecting the common historical memory of a local society, that is, a collective's memory of the changes in life it has experienced together.
Both the requirement to change one's life and the requirement to remember one's past constitute the cultural mentality of contemporary people.
However, some people who propose the protection of intangible cultural heritage lack this complete mentality.
They only one-sidedly emphasize the protection of cultural heritage, and even ask some people not to change their original lives.
The people-created cultural heritage protection methods are more vital
Qinshuiying Village, Changziying Town, Daxing District, Beijing is located in the plain area of southern Beijing.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, immigrants from Qinshui County, Shanxi Province built villages here.
At that time, there were 16 surnames and 18 families.
It was one of a series of immigrant villages in the "72 Lianying" on both sides of the Feng River.
This history has not only become the reputation of villagers, but has also been recorded in ancient documents such as the "Record of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty".
The legend of immigrating here from Shanxi is intertwined with the immigration legend of "Hongdong, Shanxi" widely circulated in North China.
As the oldest collective memory of Qinshuiying Village, it was written and painted on the village two years ago.
On the wall of the cultural compound next to the committee.
Another iconic folk culture with a sense of village identity is the "Chahui", a performing art folk flower festival that is said to have formed in the Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty.
Every year, Qinshuiying Village's cross festival shows its talents at the temple fair.
In 1951, a Pingju Troupe was established in the village.
More than 40 villagers participated in the Troupe and performed "Little Son-in-Law" and "Liu Qiaoer".
On the third month of March, the sixth month of June, the 15th month of August, and the Spring Festival of the lunar calendar, the village sets up a stage to sing opera, and villagers from nearby Shiliba villages come to watch.
The West Courtyard has two exhibition halls in the north and the south.
The south exhibition hall has the exhibition hall of "Qinshuiying Village Events".
The awards, flags, trophies, etc.
won by the village over the years, contracts for buying and selling land during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, marriage certificates during the Republic of China and after the founding of New China, land certificates during the land reform, food stamps, cloth coupons, agricultural coupons, industrial coupons, bicycle licenses, etc.
from the 1960s; there are also carpets and tools woven when the village was running factories, tables and stools used by students in different eras.
The north exhibition hall displays two parts of folk cultural relics.
One part is daily necessities used in different periods, such as kerosene lamps, glass-covered lamps, copper pipes for boiling water, old telephones, first-generation black-and-white televisions, etc.; the other part is farm tools, such as wooden plows, hoes, wooden forks on the yard, etc.; various instruments and ropes used for pulling carts by large livestock.
The cultural compound of Qinshuiying Village shows that the person in charge of the village committee attaches great importance to the construction of public culture, especially regards the development of public culture and the memory and preservation of village history and folk culture as one thing, so that history and reality complement each other, allowing people to evoke more historical life experiences.
Qinshuiying Village does not have intangible cultural heritage recognized by the government and experts, but their attitude towards protecting folk culture in social development is commendable.