The American "Western Folklore" academic journal published a special issue on "Intangible Cultural Heritage in China"

In April 2017, Western Folklore (Volume 76,Number 2,Spring 2017) published a series of articles on China's intangible cultural heritage by four scholars, including Zhang Juwen, Zhou Xing, Gao Bingzhong and Xiao Fang, in a special issue.

This is the first time that China scholars have systematically introduced China's intangible cultural heritage in authoritative journals of international folklore.

It not only opens a new chapter in international dialogue in China's folklore circles, but also marks the first time that the United States has introduced the current situation, cultural context and mechanisms of China's intangible cultural heritage to world folklore practitioners.

Taking this as an opportunity, China's intangible cultural heritage practice and theoretical discussion have entered the perspective of international exchanges and dialogue; it is foreseeable that more and more China's folklore circles will also make their voices heard in the international academic circle.

Western Folklore was founded in 1942 and is sponsored by the Western States Folklore Society.

It has a long history of 76 years.

As one of the recognized authoritative journals in folklore circles in the United States and even the world, it is included in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

It is committed to the description and analysis of regional, national and international folklore, and has accumulated rich achievements in folklore theory.

and achievements.

The Arts&Humanities Citation Index, referred to as A&HCI, complements and keeps pace with the well-known SSCI.

It is currently the two internationally recognized authoritative citation index database systems for humanities and social sciences.

SSCI mainly collects social science journals.

Correspondingly, A&HCI focuses on collecting the most authoritative and influential academic journals in the fields of art and humanities.

Currently, A&HCI has included more than 1,700 academic journals covering 28 disciplines in the fields of arts and humanities.

This special issue of "Intangible Cultural Heritage in China" takes the practice of intangible cultural heritage in China as the theme and demonstrates the theoretical discussions of China scholars on intangible cultural heritage activities.

Professor Zhang Juwen and Professor Zhou Xing opened the opening session of "The Core of Intangible Cultural Heritage Practice in China"("The Essentials of Intangible Cultural Heritage Practices in China"), it is pointed out that the purpose of this special issue is to discuss the cultural logic and communication and transformation mechanism of Chinese tradition under the concept of intangible cultural heritage; based on the identification of the conceptual terms used by practitioners of the intangible cultural heritage movement in daily life, we can observe the changes taking place in Chinese culture from within.

The author believes that people are using terms such as intangible cultural heritage, heritage, beliefs and traditions to rebuild folk discourse.

This reconstruction effort and facts not only reveal the vitality of China culture, but also gradually break the original binary ideology.

Professor Zhou Xing mainly focuses on the theme of folk beliefs.

In the article "Folk Belief and its Legalization in China", Professor Zhou Xing summarized five characteristics of folk beliefs, summarized the evolution of national policies on folk beliefs from the end of the 19th century to the founding of New China, and pointed out the three main paths for folk beliefs in contemporary China to gain legitimacy: folklore, religionization and cultural heritage.

While heritage helps folk beliefs gain recognition by the state and society, it also reconstructs folk beliefs.

The author believes that folk beliefs are of great significance to the daily life of contemporary China, and their legitimacy can ultimately be properly resolved through the channel of "folk religion."

Professor Gao Bingzhong in his "Social Movement to Protect Intangible Cultural Heritage and the End of China's Cultural Revolution"("The Social Movement of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and the End of Cultural Revolutions in China") reflects on the evolutionist ideas promoted by the country since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, which prioritize modern Western values and dismiss local folk culture as "backward".

At the same time, the author believes that, After its introduction to China, the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage has evolved into a social movement to regain cultural identity.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Movement has helped long-obscured folk culture regain legitimacy in the public domain.

The logic of cultural revolution in China society since the 19th century is changing, terminating, and even gradually subverting.

"The Predicament, Revitalization,and Future of Traditional Chinese Festivals" written by Professor Xiao Fang discusses the historical process of traditional Chinese festivals from the abolition of traditional festivals and the implementation of Western calendars in China since 1912 to the present to the day.

The author particularly emphasized the key role played by China's intangible cultural heritage protection movement in helping the government re-establish the value of traditional festivals, and reviewed in detail the inheritance and development of traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival in contemporary contexts.

The author believes that in the face of contemporary rapid economic and social changes, traditional festivals are also facing major challenges from three aspects.

Therefore, they should promptly adjust themselves in terms of publicity, entertainment and inclusiveness to adapt to the development of the times.

The fifth article in the special issue is "Intangible Cultural Heritage and Self-Healing Mechanism in China Culture" written by Professor Zhang Juwen.

The author first proposed the concept of "cultural self-healing mechanism" in the article, and summarized and analyzed its inherent self-healing mechanism based on the inheritance and development logic of China culture.

This mechanism has been particularly prominent in cultural conflicts and exchanges in the past, and now in the intangible cultural heritage protection movement, and the vitality of China culture is relying on this mechanism to continue.

Based on "core beliefs and values" such as polytheistic cosmology and inclusive ethics, the self-healing mechanism of China culture, stimulated by the localization of the intangible cultural heritage movement, has re-established China's cultural self-awareness and even cultural self-confidence from three levels: the country, intellectuals and the public.

The cultural self-healing mechanism is manifested in three aspects in the current intangible cultural heritage movement: harmony but difference, inheritance and industrialization of intangible cultural heritage projects, and localization related to "harmony but difference".

The author believes that respecting diversity and localization within the overall cultural framework is crucial to the continuation of the vitality of Chinese culture.

In the field of international folklore, the results of systematic and theoretical discussions on China's intangible cultural heritage protection activities are still sparse.

Through this special issue of "Intangible Cultural Heritage in China", representative domestic folk scholars expressed their latest thoughts on China's intangible cultural heritage to the international academic community;"Western Folk Customs" also provides a relatively complete introduction to the history, current situation, and theoretical thinking of China's intangible cultural heritage practice.

The five articles, including the preface, are linked from different perspectives to explain the intangible cultural heritage phenomenon from a deep cultural perspective and explore the core and internal logic of China culture.

For the academic circles of China and the United States, such a dimension of communication is the first time.

The latest articles in "Western Folklore" can be browsed through Project MUSE,ProQuest and other academic journal databases.

JSTOR can be found in all previous issues five years ago.

(Written by: Wang Yuchen, a doctoral candidate majoring in folklore, School of Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University)