[Liu Xiaojing Ma Zhiyao] Steady maintenance and change of cultural heritage in the process of urbanization
Abstract: Urbanization has greatly improved the level of urban modernization in China, but urbanization is fatal to the ongoing protection of cultural heritage.
Urbanization includes urban modernization and rural urbanization.
Urban modernization has destroyed many material cultural heritage, and rural urbanization has eliminated the last barrier of intangible culture.
South Korea, Japan, France, Italy and other countries have experienced urbanization.
Experience is worth learning from how to successfully preserve and continue to develop their cultural heritage.
The correct ideas for current cultural heritage protection should be found from the steady maintenance and change of folk culture.
Keywords: urbanization, traditional village protection, steady state cultural protection
1
"Urbanization" has almost become an inevitable stage in the development of cities around the world today.
At this stage, the speed of economic development has increased unprecedentedly, social material production has been extremely abundant, and people's living standards have also improved.
What followed was the transformation of the urban environment.
On the surface, urbanization seems to be just an urban transformation movement.
In fact, from the inside, it is a government's approach to promote economic development, which drives the short-term improvement of the entire economy.
Starting from food, clothing, housing and transportation, it is closely related to people's consumption.
It is precisely because of this that Chongqing announced a household registration reform that will allow tens of millions of migrant workers to enter cities within 10 years.
Since June 2011, Zhucheng City, Shandong Province has successively abolished 1249 incorporated villages and merged them into 208 rural communities, becoming the first city in the country to abolish all incorporated villages.
In the past, it was just occupying rural farmland, but now it has become the demolition of people's houses, which has never been seen anywhere in the world.
An operation to get farmers to "go upstairs" is being carried out in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country.
In some places, residential houses were forcibly demolished and homestead sites were taken against the wishes of farmers, which turned into a new land enclosure movement.
The value-added benefits after the transformation of homestead were taken away by the "collusion" of power and capital.
Farmers live in the chosen "new countryside" and live a "new life" created.
Experts pointed out that this was a plunder of the countryside.
Forcing farmers to go upstairs and canceling natural villages on a large scale not only violates the spirit of the rule of law, but will also have a huge negative impact on rural society.
"At present, my country's urbanization rate has exceeded 47%, making it one of the countries with the fastest urbanization rate growth in 30 years.
But at the same time, we must also realize that in this rapid urbanization process, there are three major shortcomings: excessive 'real estate','similarity' of urban positioning, and 'shallow' of farmers 'inability to transform into citizens." [①] At present, urbanization includes two aspects: one is the renovation of old cities and the construction of new cities, and the other is the construction of new countryside.
The current problems in the renovation of the old city are the one-sided city and the large-scale destruction of cultural heritage.
The thousand-city side means that many cities in China are aligning their functional positioning and planning with European and American countries.
The central business district, financial district, residential areas, etc.
seem to have complete functions, but the architectural style and design are similar, becoming a replica of foreign cities.
Regional characteristics and local cultural characteristics have been obliterated, and the personality characteristics of the city have disappeared.
The most important thing is that with the renovation of ancient buildings and neighborhoods, a city's history and culture will be lost in a short period of time.
"The unique national 'city-building movement' in the history of the world's cities has brought all our cities, large and small, back again, erased historical memories, cloned each other, and finally looked like each other like ants." [②] The resurgence of urban construction has developed all urban buildings to higher heights.
While modernizing buildings and neighborhoods, it has also destroyed the urban pattern and characteristics.
Some monuments bearing history and culture were destroyed, and some former residences of celebrities were eradicated; at the same time, the expanded city annexed rural farmland, turning farmers who have relied on the land for generations to become urban residents.
It seems that the level of urbanization marks the degree of civilization in a city.
However, while the number of high-rise buildings and communities increased, they did not correspondingly improve the cultural literacy of the newly added farmers, nor did they solve the employment, cultural and entertainment problems of farmers after losing their land.
In the past, the well-preserved folk culture in the village suffered unprecedented damage.
Artists lost the space for performance and the rural communities where they could have gathered.
This was equivalent to losing the stage for performance, and the use value of folk culture disappeared.
As the countryside disappeared, folk culture, as the most important rural culture, also disappeared, because the village, the material carrier on which folk culture relied, disappeared.
As important disseminators of folk culture, the villagers also caused the dispersion of their living.
The loss of folk customs.
The New Rural Movement directly caused the decline of folk art and the extinction of folk culture in China.
Because of this, China's urbanization has caused cities to lose their individuality and lost their soil for precious folk culture.
"Ancient villages are a combination of material culture and intangible cultural heritage.
Our intangible cultural heritage is basically in rural areas, cultural diversity is also in rural areas, and the roots of the nation are deeply rooted in rural areas "[③].
Ancient buildings and ancient villages can be said to carry important and rich cultural heritage, cultural information, and cultural genes.
They are witnesses of history and maintain the last traces of history.
If these are all demolished and replaced by modern urbanized communities, the spiritual loss of mankind will be irreparable.
"Our ancient village not only has its historical and cultural value, research value, witness value, academic value, aesthetic value, appreciation value, multi-faceted value, but the most important value is its spiritual value." [④] What we know so far is that China's vigorous urbanization movement has caused a cruel reality in more than 600 cities in China, and no one is held accountable for the destruction of historical buildings.
Rural culture has been severely damaged.
The folk culture that has just been rescued is facing another disaster.
Under such circumstances, experts and scholars shouted the slogan of dying rescue.
This term, originally used in medicine, is forced to be used in the current folk cultural rescue project.
It can be said to be helpless.
I think urbanization has really brought the protection and rescue of China's cultural heritage to an imminent critical juncture.
Why did this happen? Although urbanization is a global trend.
But when it comes to China specifically, it is actually the view of economic performance that is at work.
When examining the political performance of leading cadres with "GDP" as an important indicator, cultural political performance naturally has to take a back seat.
In order to have a better career career, officials big and small are scrambling to achieve economic development and prosperity.
Although we have also seen the important value of cultural heritage, because cultural values have slow results and long cycles, they often have to obey the general direction of economic development.
In recent years, the protection of intangible cultural heritage has been raised to a higher level.
Some local governments have also made efforts in applying for intangible cultural heritage because they see that it is profitable to apply for intangible cultural heritage.
It seems that leaders and governments have begun to pay certain attention to the cause of cultural heritage.
However, as long as the outlook on economic performance does not change, culture will always be a tool for making money.
Therefore, emphasizing the application of cultural heritage over protection has become a common phenomenon in the process of urbanization.
The purpose of applying for the heritage is only to develop the local economy.
Once it cannot be immediately effective or produce economic benefits, it will be immediately transformed or transformed into something that meets the needs of marketization.
Therefore, either demolition or market-oriented transformation.
This has almost become the common destiny of current cultural heritage.
Demolition leads to the instantaneous destruction of historical and cultural values, and transformation faces the artificial destruction or distortion of the original historical and cultural heritage of the cultural heritage itself.
It is a destructive act.
2
"Cultural behaviors, the construction, understanding and use of symbolic forms, are social events like other social events; they are as public as marriage and as visible as agriculture." [③] If our urban culture cannot be well interpreted and understood, then the planning, development and construction of the entire city will be blind, and there will be blind Westernization of the city and blind modernization of the countryside.
When our culture is completely transformed by the culture of others, or when we blindly submit to the culture of others, our own culture will be lost unknowingly.
In today's era of cultural diversity, we do not extremely exclude all foreign cultures, but we should have a clear understanding of the local culture of our own nation.
Cultural behavior is reflected in intellectuals 'foresight of culture and high respect for their own national culture.
If developers and officials full of political achievements are allowed to randomly attack our cultural heritage, the cultural power of such a nation will be fragile and worrying.
Cultural behavior is also reflected in the people's understanding and awareness of culture.
It is reflected in the government's attitude and policies towards culture.
"The whole of France rejects the shallowness, publicity and brutality of American culture.
They are stubbornly obsessed with their profound traditions.
They all have a strong historical feeling." [④] Such historical feelings and cultural behaviors are not formed overnight, but are a tradition formed by the nourishment of French culture.
It is not easy to repair a tradition that has not been destroyed.
Therefore, the experience of the French is worth learning from.
The period after the end of World War II is often called the "Glorious Thirty Years" by the French.
During this historical period, people were eager to get rid of the shadow left by the war and make up for the scars left by the war as soon as possible.
Urban transformation became the focus of the entire city during this period.
During this period, the losses and destruction caused by the city during the renovation were three times that of the war.
Traditional buildings faced huge disasters.
At that time, at the initiative of André Malraux, Minister of Writers and Culture, a new "Historical Districts Protection Law" was passed, emphasizing the importance of overall protection of historical districts.
In 1973, the French government promulgated the Urban Planning Law, a cultural relics protection law formulated for urban transformation.
This law reaffirms the principle of overall protection of historical districts as cultural heritage during urban renewal.
Regardless of whether the neighborhood agrees or not, it must obey the letter of the law.
All historical districts should also formulate long-term plans, and those who destroy the original urban landscape will be prosecuted legally.
"In Paris, France) The Panthéon is here not focusing on the fruitful achievements of these great men, but on their extraordinary ideological journey and personality." [③] Yes, the power of spiritual culture is priceless.
When rescuing and protecting cultural heritage, we cannot only pay attention to the current state of the heritage.
More importantly, we can help people understand and interpret the national spirit and cultural charm behind the vicissitudes of history.
Otherwise, the erroneous consciousness of letting it die will still be rampant among the people.
After all, the spiritual culture of our nation cannot die out anymore.
"The Municipal Council of Bologna, Italy, has put forward the slogan of 'protecting people and houses together' for the first time in the world.
This new concept of protection not only protects the city's historical and cultural heritage, but also protects the citizens who live in it.
Achieve the planning goal of 'the same people live in the same place' in the historical and cultural center.
Guided by this new concept of 'anti-development' and holistic protection, Italy has changed the scale of renewal and renovation of the old Urban area with original history and culture, and protected a large number of theaters like the Arena Amphitheater in central Verona." [] The concept of holistic protection has now reached a consensus around the world.
Protecting heritage should be protected together with the entire ecology living in it, and residents should not be eliminated just because they want to protect cultural heritage.
At present, some typical cases of failure in cultural heritage protection have told us that the result of such protection can only be an empty shell "museum", and the livelihood and vitality of culture will soon disappear due to the disappearance of community people.
However, there is a special case.
In the process of protecting the former residences of celebrities in each city, we should also seek truth from facts and treat different issues differently.
There are many former residences of celebrities in Beijing, Tianjin, Jinan and other places.
Many of these former residences are cultural relics protection units, but some of them still have residents.
This is not conducive to the maintenance and protection of famous people's former residences.
The protection of the former residence should be to restore the original appearance of the former residence and restore the purity of the past owner, so that those who come after them can appreciate the livelihood and spiritual charm of celebrities while paying homage.
The governments of France and Italy are at the forefront of the world in terms of material cultural heritage.
In the protection of intangible cultural heritage, the experience of Japan and South Korea is particularly worth learning from and promoting.
In 1950, the Japanese government promulgated the Cultural Property Protection Law.
The most distinctive thing about Japan is the recognition of "national treasure on earth".
Once it is identified, the state will allocate considerable special funds to record the artistic materials of the "National Treasure on Earth", preserve its works, and support him to teach his skills, cultivate successors, and improve his living and artistic conditions.
Every year, the government provides a financial subsidy of 2 million yen to each "national treasure on earth".
The government not only provides financial subsidies and tax incentives to "national treasures on earth", but also encourages them to innovate in craftsmanship and improve their skills.
The law stipulates that if a holder of cultural property keeps his skills secret, no matter how high his skills are, he will not be designated as a "national treasure on earth" by the government.
Over the past few decades, the implementation of cultural incentive mechanisms has enabled many Japanese crafts, performing arts and other categories to go from endangered to reborn and then to new prosperity under strong protection measures.
In Japan, the selection process for the national intangible cultural heritage catalog is very strict, and experts in this field responsible for the selection work must conduct national inspections in advance and collect data.
Independent research and suggestions by experts are the only basis for selection.
South Korea has been collecting and sorting traditional folk culture since the 1960s.
In 1962, the "Korean Cultural Property Protection Law" was enacted.
In this law, the state determined that intangible cultural heritage of important value will be provided with 100% funding guarantee.
Intangible cultural heritage countries determined by provinces and cities will provide 50% funding.
They call artists who master unique folk skills "living human treasures." The state provides them with all the funds for various activities such as public performances and exhibitions, as well as for research, expansion of skills, and artistic skills.
At the same time, the government also provides a monthly living allowance of 1 million won per person and provides a series of medical security systems to ensure They have no worries about food and clothing.
Artists are obligated to hold public performances at home and abroad every year, while also passing on their skills to others.
This system requires teachers to lead apprentices to ensure the sustainability of intangible cultural heritage.
The list of national-level intangible cultural heritage established by the country is publicized for one year, during which it must accept public supervision and opinions.
The "New Rural Movement" launched by the South Korean government in 1970 is very similar to the current new rural construction in China.
However, South Korea's New Rural Movement is not a government undertaking, nor is it a complete urbanization.
Instead, it encourages and encourages villagers to be self-reliant, improve the environment and living conditions, and rewards and commends those villages that do well to inspire everyone.
A sense of ownership of building their homes.
At the same time, because everyone works collectively, there are more opportunities for collective entertainment.
During the collective entertainment at night, the talents of each village perform rich cultural performances, which also allows each village to understand and explore traditional folk culture.
The government encourages villages to consciously rescue and protect their precious folk culture, and gives well-protected villages the honorary title of "Folk Village", and the government department personally awards them.
Villages with such a title can just use their own folk culture to develop tourism and drive the development of the village economy.
Through such strategies, the South Korean government has well protected its own folk cultural resources in the New Rural Movement, and has made many villages fully aware of the importance of traditional folk culture, which has played a positive role in protecting and spreading folk culture.
Summarizing the experience of Japan and South Korea is important and there are the following points worthy of vigorous promotion and implementation.
1.
Establish a nationally authoritative selection list.
The China government has implemented a four-level list protection system.
2.
Give artists high honors, solve all worries, encourage artists to open their doors to teach apprentices, and make passing on their skills the obligation of the inheritors.
The China government is implementing this issue, but it has not solved it well.Most artists did not receive funding from the national government, and some local governments directly intercepted government funding.
Some places make many promises to inheritors when applying, and once the application is successful, they no longer care about the development and inheritance of cultural heritage itself.
Inheritors in some places have received some government subsidies, but compared with the huge market temptation and living pressure, they have not yet completely abandoned everything and focused on the inheritance and development of traditional cultural heritage.
Moreover, due to insufficient support from the national and local governments, there are very few young people.
Willing to inherit and learn ancient skills.
3.
The Japanese and South Korean governments will give artists sufficient space and invite them to participate in various large-scale cultural exchanges and performances.
The purpose is to promote and disseminate intangible cultural heritage, make it more accessible to more audiences, and participate in the protection and rescue of the whole people.
The China government is also actively promoting and introducing intangible cultural heritage, but some places use culture to set up an economic stage to allow more intangible culture to enter stage performances, and even wantonly distort and tamper with the content and form of intangible cultural heritage for the sake of the market.
This result can only lead to the rapid decay of excellent cultural heritage.
3
"There are no clear boundaries for cultural changes.
When we see some kind of great change, it has been in the making for a long time, but we have not noticed such precautions." [] It must be admitted that any cultural heritage has its own process of development and decline.
Cultural heritage is not immutable.
In their steady-state content and form, they will always change with the development of society.
They are stable in the midst of change.
From the perspective of the classification of cultural heritage, material cultural heritage is mainly manifested in the damage and aging of appearance due to the erosion of time.
Therefore, the internationally accepted method of treating material cultural heritage is to repair it as old and to make it as old.
Extend the life of material cultural heritage as much as possible while maintaining its original historical appearance.
In the event of conflicts with modern urban construction plans, cultural relics protection is the main focus, and urban buildings are subject to the protection of material cultural heritage.
Therefore, a subway line can be used for an ancient building, which has almost become a symbol of civilization.
The expression of intangible cultural heritage is that memories and skills survive in the inheritors, so rescuing and protecting intangible cultural heritage is first to protect the inheritors.
The changes and unchanges caused by the impact of time on inheritors are mainly reflected in the following: First, the content and forms of some intangible cultural heritage are still tenaciously preserved, but their survival is difficult because they are not suitable for the current social development.
Artists are older and lack young successors.
That is to say, intangible cultural heritage is basically on the edge of change.
In a dangerous situation where people die.
2.
On the surface, the content and form of some intangible cultural heritage have not changed much, but in order to meet the market or livelihood needs, the inheritors have boldly carried out necessary processing and transformation according to their own needs, which is related to the intangible cultural heritage of the past, but it is no longer the original technology and memory.
Such intangible cultural heritage has entered the ranks of change and needs to be carefully screened to help inheritors restore their original heritage patterns, encourage and support inheritors to replicate traditional technologies and memories, and prudently carry out intangible cultural heritage suitable for the market.
Develop and utilize, preserve original craftsmanship, and maintain local characteristics and historical and cultural values.
Those that are not suitable for the market need unified national management and support.
3.
Some intangible cultural heritage has been fully utilized during development and has little to do with the original local culture.
It is purely the result of mechanized production.
It can only be regarded as folk handicrafts rather than cultural heritage.
At this time, expert guidance is needed to name intangible cultural heritage: what are intangible cultural heritage and what are modern innovative products.
Separating the two will help to protect real intangible cultural heritage more favorably.
Otherwise, the true meaning of intangible cultural heritage will easily be misunderstood or even generalized by the people.
It can be said that intangible cultural heritage survives in a steady state maintenance and gradual change.
When dealing with different objects, protectors and researchers should intervene scientifically.
Change cannot be ignored, and the loss of intangible cultural heritage needs to be minimized through guidance.
"The reason why village temple fairs and others are 'revitalized' is not just that old things refuse to withdraw from the historical stage or play a role in the opposite direction of social progress.
The more important reason may be that during the period of social change, due to the existence of various social forces, the unprecedented dynamic interaction between them has stimulated the people to use them to make their voices heard." [] Professor Liu Tieliang discovered that the problem of "rejuvenation" of temple fairs in today's society is of typical significance.
This example can also be used to prove the change or unchanging of cultural heritage in the process of contemporary urbanization, and to answer the current situation of intangible culture in the process of steady maintenance and change development.
In particular, the construction of new countryside in the process of urbanization makes it seem that folk beliefs cannot be supported, and the past New Year customs have also disappeared in community-based urbanization.
Does this mean that the ancient traditions of the past have no value at all? The revival of temple fairs answers this question.
If people can still find the value of cultural heritage, then cultural heritage can continue its life.
In the noisy and impetuous times, folk beliefs have begun to recover as a cure for the human soul; the rapid development of industrial society has also prompted urban people to review past rural memories; as cities where desires cannot stop, they need past memories and traditional cultural comfort requires preservation of a life history that people are awe-inspiring in modern cities.
At the same time, in the special period of social transformation, people need to rely on a spiritual power to complete the transformation of life roles and adapt to changes in life.
From rural areas to cities, from farmhouses to high-rise buildings, changes in people's inner world require transition.
Everyone is not a purely spatial individual.
They all bear more or less the shadow of the past, and the influence of the past often takes effect through the means of cultural heritage.
Temple fair culture in cities or villages will reappear a space that collects past memories, communicates and harmonizes human emotions, and displays folk unique skills.
This is the people's need for culture and spirit.
Our cities are changing, and human civilization is constantly being reflected through the rapid development of science and technology and economy, but the soul and spiritual home of mankind also needs to be constantly managed.
Because humans are different from animals in that they are cultural animals.
Culture is emotional, warm and historical, and has spiritual qualities.
The more mankind develops, the more it needs different cultures.
Cultural diversity and diversity are exactly what mankind must maintain.
Of course, the key to maintaining cultural diversity and diversity is to protect and preserve those excellent traditional cultures so that mankind can better inherit and enjoy the cultural achievements of the past, and at the same time create new cultural achievements.
Therefore, creating a new life does not come at the expense of destroying cultural heritage.
If we realize this, mankind will be more aware of the importance of culture while developing the economy and be in awe of our cultural traditions.
The current "cultural search for roots" is a common reaction against modernity under the trend of globalization.
The protection of cultural heritage is a positive manifestation of cultural search for roots.
Cultural heritage protection and modern development are not completely opposed.
The renewal of concepts and creative awareness in modern society have greatly enriched materials.
It is necessary to invest more material support in the protection of cultural heritage while developing economy.
While people's lives are improved, we are aware of the wealth of urban or rural cultural heritage that we are demolishing and renovating, understand what needs to be vigorously rescued and protected, and better preserve the heritage in overall scientific planning.
The improvement and improvement of the living environment is not inconsistent with the protection of cultural heritage.
We hope to see that in modern rural areas and modern cities in the future, those living treasures that survive through overall protection will still be spread alive in the land of China.
Because in the process of urbanization, government experts, businessmen and scholars have realized the importance of folk culture and cultural heritage during their survival, they can still become part of people's daily lives and become an indispensable element in the future human living space.
This article was published in the 4th issue of "Dongyue Commentary" in 2013
[①] This article is supported by the National Social Science Fund's major project "Construction of China Woodblock New Year Painting Database and Re-study of Oral History Methodology" project number: 11&ZD064).
[②] Liu Xiaojing 1964-) Taishan Scholar, Vice President, Doctoral Supervisor and Professor of Shandong Art Institute.
Ma Zhiyao 1971-) Director of the Cultural Heritage Center of Feng Jicai Institute of Literature and Art, Tianjin University, Doctor of Literature, and Professor.
[Notes]
[①] Lei Min Wang Xi: The urbanization rate in China exceeds 47%, Changsha Evening News, March 3, 2011
[②] Feng Jicai: The soul cannot kneel down--Academic Essay on the meaning of Feng Jicai's cultural heritage, Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, May 2007, page 7
[③] Feng Jicai: The soul cannot kneel down--Academic Essay on the meaning of Feng Jicai's cultural heritage, Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, May 2007, page 11
[④] Feng Jicai: The soul cannot kneel down--Academic Essay on the meaning of Feng Jicai's cultural heritage, Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, May 2007, page 61
[③] US) Clifford Gertz: Interpretation of Culture, Nanjing: Yilin Publishing House, November 1999, p.
112
[④] Feng Jicai: Paris, Art First, Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, April 2010, page 21
[③] Feng Jicai: Paris, Art First, Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, April 2010, page 78
[] Wang Wen: Introduction to Intangible Cultural Heritage, Beijing: Culture and Art Press, October 2006, 251 pages
[] Naribiligo: The Symbolic Stage in the City--Mongolian Nadam and Its Symbol Interpretation in Beijing Guo Yuhua Editor: Ritual and Social Changes, Beijing: Social Science Literature Press, October 2000, 160 pages
[] Liu Tieliang: The Tradition and Adjustment of Village Temple Fair-A Comparison between Fanzhuang's "Longpai Fair" and Several Other Village Temple Fair Guo Yuhua, Editor in Chief: Ritual and Social Changes, Beijing: Social Science Literature Press, October 2000, 302 pages