[Tian Qing] Intangible cultural heritage protection in urbanization construction

Good morning, everyone! Today, I will not talk about theory, just a little feeling.

"Intangible cultural heritage protection in urbanization construction" is very important! The two surveys I have recently participated in were on this topic.

One was an inspection to Anhui and Zhejiang organized by the Central Museum of Literature and History in May, and the other was an inspection to Fujian and Anhui organized by the Education, Culture and Culture Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and led by Vice Chairman Lu Zhangong personally.

The theme of our meeting today is still this, which shows that this topic has indeed attracted the common attention of the people across the country, and it is a major topic that must be solved before us! I have many feelings during these surveys, and I want to talk about two feelings below.

The first feeling is how to view our current urbanization process.

The urbanization process is an inevitable trend in the development of our society and a big trend.

There is no need to talk about its benefits, such as how to economically stimulate the needs of the entire social construction, etc., which I will not talk about.

I will only talk about one point, which is what I have seen with my own eyes, the heartfelt joy and happiness of the farmers themselves towards urbanization construction and their sense of happiness.

I think there are only two eras that can be compared to all farmers 'feelings about urbanization.

One is that the implementation of the contract system in Xiaogang Village has allowed farmers to earn income, and the other is our urbanization construction today.

This should be a heartfelt pursuit of farmers from generation to generation.

I think this is a bottom line for ordinary intellectuals to view urbanization and an emotional and moral bottom line that cannot be replaced with numbers or other things.

The second feeling is that our achievements in intangible cultural heritage protection over the past ten years cannot be underestimated.

During the investigation, I felt that if it had not been for our intangible cultural heritage protection work over the past ten years, especially if the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection had not been penetrated into every corner of society to varying degrees, then we could say bluntly that For traditional culture, this urbanization construction would be a disaster! If we had carried out urbanization ten years ago, when the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection had not yet been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, I am afraid that traditional culture would die out very quickly.

It cannot be said that all of it would die out, but it should also be said that there would be no possibility of protection.

So my second feeling is also from the bottom of my heart! That is, although we who do specific work on intangible cultural heritage protection have seen many problems, and we are not satisfied with it ourselves and are not ideal enough, we have indeed seen one of the greatest achievements of intangible cultural heritage protection, which is to deepen the concept of intangible cultural heritage.

It has reached all levels of the country, including farmers.

This is the second starting point.

Let me also give a few examples, which are some problems and phenomena discovered in two surveys in the past two months.

The first is that this time we went to Fujian for research.

A municipal party committee secretary in a city is in his forties and is very capable! He was very proud to lead us to visit a cultural project introduced in their city.

This project was a Ming and Qing Garden built by a foreign businessman.

Before going, the local people told us: "The Ming and Qing Garden we will see tomorrow is shocking!" As a result, we all went to visit this Ming and Qing Garden as a tourist project.

This businessman made money in real estate and came to do culture.

He demolished ancient buildings in Anhui and many other places in the region and rebuilt them in situ.

Many people are doing this kind of thing.

But this is the most famous example that we can't stand after reading it! He demolished all the large buildings, including the temple, into one place and piled them together.

At the same time, he comprehensively renovated them with the aesthetics of a businessman or simply a nouveau riche.

He pasted all the wooden components with gold foil, including an ordinary wooden bracket.

When we went in and had a look, it was resplendent, but it was very vulgar! He also said,"This is ancient!" In fact, many of them are fake, made by people specializing in making old furniture in Fujian.

Also, his big plaques were difficult to distinguish from real or fake.

Because there were too many plaques, he piled them one by one to turn them into a big wall, no matter what words or content were on the plaques, they were all piled together.

This secretary accompanied Lu Zhangong in front, and I kept walking behind.

I later learned that they had already quarreled with the mayor in front of them.

They said,"How can you renovate like this?" When I reached the door, Lu Zhangong asked me.

He said,"Mr.

Tian, what is your attitude?" I didn't know that they had already quarreled.

I said,"Are you asking me to tell the truth or lie?" He said: "Of course I'm telling the truth!" I said: "To be honest, I don't know whether to laugh or cry!" He said,"What do you mean?" I said,"These are not monuments! This is completely transformed by modern people, vulgar businessmen who have no culture or any respect for history! The size of the area and the number are indeed shocking, but they all make people laugh and cry!" I made a fake antique and placed it there and sold it for eighty yuan.

Many people went to see it! But our municipal party committee secretary said yes, and the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee also said yes.

Later, the secretary of the municipal party committee felt very embarrassed.

That night, their deputy governor said: "We have been to this place several times, but we haven't seen any better." Therefore, one of the biggest results of our survey was that the provincial party secretary said in person that he would rectify this place and respect culture.

This is an example.

The second example is when we were investigating the construction of a new socialist countryside in Anhui.

There was a square with a pavilion on the square and a calligraphy and painting exhibition held in the city.

Some of them were painted by farmers themselves, and they were all very well! But farmers danced in the square.

Later, I asked them: "Did you have flower drum lanterns in Anhui in the past?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Do flower drum lanterns still dance now?" He said: "I don't want to dance anymore, learn to dance square dance, and our county holds square dance competitions." They learn from cities and completely replace local culture with urban culture.

The third small example is in a very dilapidated and dilapidated ancient village, we saw an advertisement sprayed on the wall, which read "XX Drum Music Club." Because I studied folk music, I was very interested when I saw that this drum club was not only alive, but also had advertisements and had a contact number.

However, when I saw the sentence at the end, I laughed,"soprano solo, electronic piano accompaniment".

They used this as a promotion for the drum club, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

I give these three examples to illustrate such a question.

In the process of urbanization, how should we start to protect intangible cultural heritage and traditional culture? Don't talk about big principles, how can we enter? What is its biggest problem? I think from a technical perspective, when farmers enter the city, they begin to accept all urban culture.

Especially under the influence of mainstream media, they accept whatever culture is broadcast on TV.

Don't talk for too long, not for a year or two.

It's basically the case now.

The mainstream entertainment culture represented by TV media is the main culture after our urbanization.

So how can we pass on these things that we want to protect and preserve? I don't think it will be useful to rely on policy support alone.

For example, yesterday we read a document on protecting dramas.

It was very well written, but after reading it, I also had questions.

Let alone ten or a hundred folk drama groups, there are a thousand folk drama groups.

If we give them money to protect a drama or drama genre every year, can he protect it well with the money? I think there is still a problem! Because our requirement for money is to create new plays, and the result of innovation is homogenization, which is almost inevitable.

Others said to me: "Tian Qing, whenever you talk about drama, you talk about adding a cello to the accompaniment." I said: "This is obvious to all! All local drama troupes must buy cello if they have money." How much traditional repertoire have you explored? Your roots and soul are all in these traditional plays, and your characteristics are also here.

You are all equipped with cello.

Invite people graduated from the Conservatory of Music to orchestrate and compose music for you.

This is not protection! You say it is innovation, but let me tell you, counting how many groups there are in the country.

As long as we don't explore and organize traditional operas, as long as we focus on innovation, this is the way! No one can escape this curse.

They are all learning from the West and moving closer to opera! It's not that this road can't be done.

Some are done well, but most of them are still common goods.

Your regiment didn't do this, but other regiments had already done it.

There are ways to have less money, and there are ways to have more money.

All of them use symphony orchestras to replace traditional drama orchestras.

The result of this homogenization still does not protect the characteristics of the drama or drama genre, and it is still impossible for it to survive.

How to allow these ancient traditional cultures to have a living space during the urbanization process, including after urbanization, my current idea is to protect its unique things and rather make it niche.

Because many groups want to go out, for example, my Anhui opera should be appreciated by people across the country; a country's opera should be liked by people all over the world.

This idea is a good idea, but the result of going out is likely to cause some unique things to be lost in the process.

The lesser of the two evils is preferred.

Compared with each other, I think it would be better to have a smaller audience for the time being than to protect its unique things first.

Therefore, advocating cultural diversity and protecting the unique things of local drama may be more likely to protect some unique things of local drama that should be protected than having money to let him innovate plays.

On June 15, at Gong Wang Mansion and the National Library, we invited Chuan Kun, the Kunqu Opera in Sichuan Opera, to perform in Beijing.

Why did we invite Chuan Kun this time? I have two ideas.

First, let people know that our so-called Kunqu Opera is the master of all operas.

We want to be able to see the influence of Kunqu Opera on other local dramas.

Everyone will be very surprised after watching it.

Second, Sichuan Opera is now known to all the people of China, but when Sichuan Opera is mentioned, people only know that it is a face-changing phenomenon.

If Sichuan Opera itself is a peerless beauty, then changing faces is just the fingernails of this peerless beauty.

In this way, we use a fingernail to replace a unique beauty.

We can't see the leaves, but we can't see the trees, let alone the woods, so we have to protect those unique things.

But I also have something disappointing when I watch Sichuan Opera now.

Its auxiliary tune is one of the most important features of Gaoqiang.

It doesn't use strings, just gongs and drums plus auxiliary tune.

But now they have learned these so-called national singing methods and scientific singing methods.

After singing, Sichuan Opera does not have much flavor and pursues another modern thing.

Therefore, the issue of intangible cultural heritage protection in urbanization construction is indeed difficult, but how to do all our efforts to allow everyone to find a good way out in this process is indeed worthy of good discussion and research.

We must not talk about protection while using homogenization efforts to make protection counterproductive and ultimately fail to achieve the purpose of protection.

Therefore, I still advocate that for traditional things, we should try our best to protect its roots and its original flavor first.

We would rather have fewer audiences than protect its seeds and its roots.

With this seed, after everyone further improves their understanding in the future and conditions are ripe, this seed can germinate.

Instead of planting melons and getting beans, planting beans will get melons.

We still have to plant beans and get beans., planting melons will get melons.

Note: This article is Mr.

Tian Qing's speech at the seminar on "Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection in Urbanization" held in July 2014.

Recording provided by: Xu Mengfei Recording organized by: Sun Weiyi

[Editor in charge of this article: Liu Xiao]