[Xiao Fang] On the Intangible Cultural Heritage Movement from the Perspective of New Cultural History
New cultural history pays attention to the daily life of ordinary people in contemporary society and attaches importance to the investigation of contemporary cultural phenomena.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage is an important event in the cultural history of contemporary China.
It is the cultural consciousness of China people in the era of globalization and represents a new stage in China's cultural history.
The evaluation and understanding of the rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage should be examined from the perspective of the historical process and philosophical culture of a century of China's culture.
Intangible cultural heritage work is the restoration and inheritance of national cultural traditions, the reconfirmation of the cultural status of the people, and an opportunity and practice for effective reconstruction of local cultural traditions.
New cultural history is a research method and research perspective that brings contemporary cultural activities into the scope of historical investigation, pays attention to cultural construction and cultural interaction under the modern political system, pays special attention to the cultural status and daily life of ordinary people, and regards the history of national and local society as an interconnected whole.
In other words, the new cultural history is considered from two aspects: one is to attach importance to the connection between traditional cultural history and contemporary cultural history; the other is to expand the spatial scope of cultural history to people's daily life.
The rescue and protection project of China's intangible cultural heritage launched in the early 21st century is an important cultural event or cultural movement in the past century.
It is an important part of China's new cultural history.
Our evaluation and understanding of the rescue and protection work of China's intangible cultural heritage in the past 10 years should break the limitations of evaluating the gains and losses of specific work details, stand up and look far, and conduct a positive and objective historical evaluation from the perspective of philosophy and culture, from the perspective of long-term historical process (combining history and reality), and from the standpoint of national cultural standards.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage is a new stage in China's cultural history in the past century
The history of China's culture in the past century is a history of exchanges and collisions between ancient and modern Chinese and Western cultures.
How to recognize traditional culture has been an important issue that has been entangled in China people for a century.
There have been several historical stages surrounding this issue
(1) The New Culture Movement in the early 20th century.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, under the attack of Western powers, the late Qing Empire lost its power and humiliated the country, causing strong dissatisfaction among the general public.
As a result, the revolution broke out, the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and the Republic of China was founded.
At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, while accepting Western cultural concepts, some intellectuals lost confidence in China's traditional culture.
They launched a new cultural movement under the slogans of science and democracy.
The so-called New Culture Movement is to distinguish it from traditional culture and break with tradition.
Traditional culture is synonymous with backwardness, decadence and reactionary among the new youth of the May Fourth Movement.
Therefore, they did not hesitate to break with the cultural matrix by cutting off the umbilical cord, and their criticism of the national cultural matrix was unprecedented.
In a historical period full of rebellion, negative comments on traditional culture have become a social trend.
This was not only the case for mainstream cultural people in the Republic of China, but as national leaders at that time, they also used a "revolutionary" attitude to deny traditional culture, such as criticizing and prohibiting traditional festival culture.
Of course, during this period, there were also some cultural people who did not deny all traditional culture.
What they wanted to deny was the elite culture of the ruling class.
With the slogan of going to the people, they launched the ballad and folklore movements and attached importance to folk culture.
Overall, this period held a strong negative attitude towards traditional culture.
(2) Cultural debates from the 1930s to the 1940s.
After the founding of the Republic of China, the country was still divided and weakened.
How to revitalize the country? Where does culture go? These issues have become the focus of attention of Chinese people, and unprecedented cultural debates have emerged.
Cultural debates mainly focus on inheriting traditional culture or abandoning traditional culture, and a fundamental opposition between "total Westernization theory" and "China's cultural standard theory" has emerged.
The theorists of "total Westernization" inherited the ideological sentiment of strongly denying China's cultural tradition since the May Fourth Movement.
The representative figures of the theory of total Westernization are Hu Shi and Chen Xujing.
In 1930, Hu Shi said in the article "Introduction to My Own Thoughts":"We must admit that we are inferior to others, not only in terms of material and machinery, not only in terms of political system, but also in terms of morality, knowledge, literature, music, art, and bodies.""Don't be afraid of losing our own national culture.","Please recognize our current urgent problems.
Our problem is to save the country, save this ailing nation, and save this half-dead culture." Therefore, we must "wholeheartedly learn from others." In 1934, Chen Xujing said in the book "The Way Out for China Culture":"Our only solution is to completely westernize," emphasizing the need to completely break the monopoly of China's traditional thought."This is the foundation for saving China's current crisis." They believe that only by implementing a complete Westernization and changing course can China be saved from danger.
Opposite the total Westernization faction are cultural people who emphasize the standard of China culture.
In 1935, 10 professors including Wang Xinming, Sa Mengwu, He Bingsong, and Huang Wenshan published the "Declaration on Cultural Construction Based on China" in the monthly "Cultural Construction", emphasizing "China-based cultural construction.""To make China rise in the cultural field, China's political, social organizations and thoughts must have China characteristics, we must engage in China-based cultural construction." The goal of standard cultural construction is to "review the past China, grasp the present China, and build the future China." Conduct careful research on traditional culture, save what it should be, and go where it should be.
We should not be conservative or blindly follow.
We should adopt a critical attitude based on China's standard, apply scientific methods, review the past, grasp the present, and create the future.
"Using cultural means to create a bright and hot China, so that China can restore its past glory in the cultural field, regain its important position, and become one of the most powerful and powerful new forces in promoting world harmony." The proposition of China's standard cultural construction is based on worries and expectations for China's cultural traditions.
Compared with those who are completely Westernized, they have a stronger mission of cultural inheritance.
At the same time, between the two major ideological trends of total Westernization and the construction of China's standard culture, there is a harmonious and eclectic New Confucianism.
They advocate the continuation of Confucian orthodoxy and the mastery of Western learning.
Representative by Liang Shuming, Xiong Shili, Feng Youlan, He Lin, etc., they advocated integrating the positive factors of Western culture with the spirit of China's traditional culture to realize the rejuvenation of Confucianism.
In 1940, Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, published "On New Democracy" in Yan 'an, proposing the theoretical proposition of establishing a new culture of the Chinese nation.
He believed that to establish a new culture of the Chinese nation,"we should try our best to absorb progressive foreign culture to learn from the development of China's new culture.""Similarly, for ancient China culture, we should neither exclude it completely nor blindly transfer it, but accept it critically to help promote China's new culture." "National science and mass culture" was the "new culture of the Chinese nation" proposed by the Communists at that time.
The cultural outlook of the Communist Party of China has had an important impact on contemporary China.
(3) The "breaking of the four old" during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao Zedong's idea of "using the past for the present, and foreign countries for China" was implemented, taking whether it was beneficial to socialist construction as the principle of absorbing nutrients from ancient China and Western culture.
However, with the spread of extreme leftist thinking, this practical principle gradually transformed into narrow self-admiration.
"National, scientific and popular culture" has changed into proletarian revolutionary culture.
Ancient culture has been backward feudal culture, and Western culture has become decadent capitalist culture.
During the "Cultural Revolution" period, the "four oldies" and "four new ones" were "broken down", and the fate of traditional culture was greatly reformed, and traditional culture suffered unprecedented disaster.
(4) During the cultural craze in the 1980s, the understanding of traditional culture gradually returned to rationality.
With the end of the Cultural Revolution, China entered a new era of reform and opening up.
At the beginning of reform and opening up, people set off a new cultural craze during their reflection and criticism of the Cultural Revolution.
Although at one time people were eager to get rid of the traditional "yellow agricultural civilization" and "embrace blue civilization", it was as if our economic backwardness was cultural backwardness, as the theorists of total Westernization believed.
However, with the rapid growth of China's economy and the continuous enhancement of comprehensive national strength, Chinese people have gradually realized that China's traditional culture is not a burden but a resource and has important value in enhancing national self-confidence.
(5) The launch of the intangible cultural heritage rescue and protection project at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century is a full affirmation of the historical status and practical significance of traditional culture.
In the 1990s, China launched a project to protect ethnic and folk culture, but its impact was limited.
In August 2004, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved accession to the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In March 2005, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in my Country".
In December of the same year, the State Council issued the "Notice of the State Council on Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Heritage", and the protection of intangible cultural heritage was included in the scope of national administrative work.
This is a huge historical progress.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage with traditional culture as the core has since entered the fast lane.
In the spirit of the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural Diversity, China's traditional culture has achieved legal status.
On February 25, 2011, the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress passed the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Law".
The first article of its general principles states clearly stated: "In order to inherit and promote the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and promote socialism, this Law is formulated for the construction of spiritual civilization, strengthening the protection and preservation of intangible cultural heritage." Article 2 defines intangible cultural heritage,"refers to various traditional cultural expressions passed down from generation to generation by people of all ethnic groups and regarded as part of their cultural heritage, as well as objects and places related to traditional cultural expressions." For the first time, traditional culture has achieved legal status in the country.
It is a huge historical progress in modern times.
It marks that the history of China's culture has entered a new historical stage.
Every discussion about culture involves the evaluation of traditional culture, and is closely related to the social, political and cultural environment, and is the joint participation of the government and the public.
Scholars are the main promoters and spokespersons.
The establishment of our four-level list system of intangible cultural heritage is not only a China practice in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, but more importantly, a re-understanding of the value and significance of national culture in the new environment of globalization.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage is the cultural enlightenment of national cultural consciousness and the confirmation of people's cultural status
Enlightenment is the process of dispelling ideological obscurity through rational understanding.
The work of intangible cultural heritage has enabled China society to obtain an important cultural enlightenment, which is reflected in the following two aspects.
First, in the process of rescuing and protecting intangible cultural heritage, through the interpretation and evaluation of the connotation of traditional culture, people can get rid of their previous negative understanding of traditional culture, rationally and consciously accept traditional culture, and this re-recognition of traditional culture.
process, we call it the re-enlightenment process of China culture.
In the enlightenment of modern culture, traditional culture was measured by Western cultural standards, and traditional culture was often negatively evaluated from the perspective of political revolution.
In contemporary society where consumerism is prevalent and technology is highly developed, people's material pursuits and means of satisfying material desires have expanded unprecedentedly.
The three basic relationships between man and nature, man and society, and man and self are full of contradictions and divisions.
Phenomena such as the deterioration of the natural environment, anomie of social morality, personal spiritual difficulties, diversity of interests, and social division have made it a top priority for contemporary China society to rethink the spiritual value of traditional culture in harmony between man and man, family and society, and to reactivate its function of social integration.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage since the 21st century is an important opportunity and way for traditional culture to successfully revitalize in contemporary China.
The contemporary cultural rejuvenation focusing on the rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage is a cultural enlightenment in the process of globalization and under the comparison of multiculturalism.
It makes us wake up from the deception of the values dominated by Europe and the United States, and is a reflection of traditional culture and cultural traditions.
Re-understanding and re-evaluation.
The enlightenment of new culture represented by intangible cultural heritage has gone through several stages: the promotion and leadership of the government, the active participation of scholars, and the extensive dissemination of the media have achieved widespread popularization of intangible cultural heritage knowledge; in this process, it is also a process of re-understanding of traditional culture for government officials, general cultural workers, the public and heritage holders.
After continuous and intensive social mobilization at all levels, the public has a new understanding of traditional culture, reached social consensus, and paid special attention to the national spiritual culture, social culture, and material cultural heritage with positive significance, enhancing the national culture.
Self-confidence and pride.
In the construction of a nation-state, building the country's main culture requires giving full play to the important role of national traditions in uniting people's hearts and enhancing national cultural identity.
"The unique spiritual values, ways of thinking, imagination and cultural awareness of the Chinese nation contained in my country's intangible cultural heritage are the basic basis for safeguarding my country's cultural identity and cultural sovereignty.
Strengthening the protection of intangible cultural heritage is not only a need for the development of the country and the nation, but also an inevitable requirement for the dialogue of civilizations in the international community and the sustainable development of human society.
"People's emphasis on traditional festivals and the re-determination of their status are successful examples.
Second, in the intangible cultural heritage movement, the culture owned by individuals, specific groups and communities is recognized and its due status.
This is also an important time for China's political and cultural tradition that has always valued elite culture and ignored people's cultural rights and interests.
An important ideological enlightenment.
In the process of national cultural construction, people have improved their position in the national cultural system through the cultural protection of intangible cultural heritage.
The government has provided unprecedented support to people's culture in terms of policy orientation, financial aid, institutional guarantee and social mobilization, and the people's traditional culture has gained a high social reputation.
Culture used to be enjoyed by civil society itself, but now it is openly dedicated to the world as a cultural treasure.
Through the unanimous praise of officials, media, and scholars, the people have gained long-lost cultural confidence.
The fundamental purpose of intangible cultural heritage lies not only in the affirmation of cultural finished products, but more importantly, in the affirmation of the historical traditions, cultural creativity and life consciousness of specific individuals, groups or communities.
It is a recognition of cultural creators, inheritors and enjoyment.
Respect and affirmation of those who enjoy it.
This kind of recognition and positive evaluation of the cultural rights and cultural welfare of individuals or groups of people is the basis for establishing a harmonious, dynamic civil society with a bright future.
From this perspective, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Movement is undoubtedly an important cultural enlightenment movement.
We illustrate this through the following three cases.
(1) It is a re-identification of the value of temple fairs.
The confirmation of the heritage value of traditional temple fairs is a clear example.
Temple fairs are an important time point for local social integration.
For a long time in the past, social managers regarded temple fairs as feudal superstitions and prohibited them.
In the early 1990s, with the improvement of the social environment in China, temple fairs were gradually restored in various places.However, temple fairs were in a spontaneous and non-governmental organization state.
Until the launch of the intangible cultural heritage project, people emphasized the cultural heritage value of temple fairs in inheriting community history, maintaining local beliefs, and uniting local society.
As some important temple fairs have been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage at all levels, people have eliminated previous doubts about the nature of temple fairs.
As a local cultural heritage, temple fairs have become traditional public cultural activities in the community, and the cultural rights and interests of the people have been affirmed and recognized., even the object of protection.
This is a landmark event in the social and cultural construction of China in the 21st century.
(2) Revitalization of family culture.
The revival of family sacrificial activities is also a manifestation of respect for people's cultural rights and interests.
After 1949, family culture was regarded as feudal culture, family ancestral sacrifices were abolished and banned as feudal superstitions, family ancestral halls were converted into schools or directly demolished, and family genealogy was destroyed as feudal records.
In the late 20th century, with the clarity of society and politics, family culture received increasingly positive evaluations.
Genealogy were re-compiled and ancestral halls were rebuilt in various places, and various clan meetings were held frequently.
In 2011, the "Ancestral Worship" custom (serial number 997, project number X-90) was included in the third batch of expansion projects of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, including the Qingming Festival ancestral worship of the Liu family in Qinshui, Shanxi, and the Taigong Sacrifice in Wencheng, Zhejiang (descendants of Liu Bowen hold a sacrificial ceremony on the birthday of Taigong every year, that is, June 15th), the Hakka ancestral worship custom in Shibi, Ninghua, Fujian, the lantern colorful phoenix custom in Jiedong, Guangdong, and the ancestral worship in Xiasha, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong.
In the list of representative projects of the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage announced in 2014, under the ancestral worship custom project, the Huizhou Temple Sacrifice in Qimen, Anhui, the ancestral worship of descendants of Zhuge in Lanxi, Zhejiang, the Nimucuo Bi Sacrifice of the Yi people in Liangshan, Meigu, Sichuan, and the Sima Qian Sacrifice in Xu Village, Hancheng, Shaanxi Province were also included.
The ritual and customs of ancestral worship are included in the list of intangible cultural heritage protected by the state, which is undoubtedly an open name for folk ancestral worship activities.
Family sacrifice culture is a national historical and cultural heritage and is worth promoting and inheriting.
When we were conducting research in the southern region, we had a deeper understanding of this.
Family sacrificial activities have become local festivals and part of the new public culture.
For example, the Nan's ancestral worship event in Yueqing, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province has historically been a local grand temple fair (Baishi Town, on the 10th day of March every year).
At the same time, the Nan family sacrifices have been integrated with villagers 'activities, the family and the village have regrouped, the village committee has participated, and social governance has achieved good results.
(3) The return of traditional festivals.
The return of traditional festivals is the direct result of the national intangible cultural heritage movement.
It is an important symbol of the rejuvenation of traditional culture in contemporary society.
Until the beginning of the 21st century, with the development of national intangible cultural heritage work, the China government and society began to re-evaluate the value and significance of traditional festivals.
Major traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Chongyang were included in the national Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
As "our festivals", traditional festivals have been promoted and promoted by relevant central and state agencies.
In 2008, the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival were designated as public holidays by the government.
As an important carrier and important symbol of traditional culture, traditional festivals have gained the highest status in a hundred years and have become an important part of people's culture.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage is an important opportunity and practice for the reconstruction of local cultural traditions
In the craze to apply for intangible cultural heritage in various places, no matter what subjective considerations they have, whether they are conscious or unconscious, objectively speaking, this intangible cultural heritage rescue and protection work is not only to preserve and inherit cultural wealth for the country, the nation and even the people of the world., but also the reconstruction of broken local cultural traditions.
Local cultural traditions are traditions of spiritual survival and material life shared by specific groups in specific regions.
Long-term life in a specific region makes it easy for people and places to form an organic interactive relationship, and gradually develop unique local tastes and local feelings.
This taste and feeling constitute the deep connotation of local cultural traditions; at the same time, local cultural traditions are more obviously reflected in local lifestyles, local historical memories, and local customs and legends.
Local cultural traditions are an important force in maintaining the local cultural ecology and the spiritual guarantee for the healthy operation of local society.
China has a vast territory, many ethnic groups, and rich and colorful local culture.
At the same time, due to the relatively fixed administrative divisions in China since the establishment of the prefecture and county system in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and more importantly, the long-term stability of China's agricultural society, people relocated to their land again, contributing to the formation and long-term maintenance of local cultural traditions.
However, this local cultural tradition has been greatly damaged in the continuous social and political changes over the past 100 years.
Many cultural phenomena that we regard as intangible cultural heritage today have once been labeled as old culture and comprehensively wiped out.
Cultural homogenization has caused the large-scale disappearance of local cultural traditions.
The lack of local cultural traditions not only causes serious harm to the psychology of local residents who rely on these cultural traditions to live, but also blocks the roots of Chinese culture in the long run.
Since China joined the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004, the protection of intangible cultural heritage has become one of the tasks of the China government, and the reconstruction of local cultural traditions has obtained unprecedented convenience.
We have seen the understanding and support of wise local officials for intangible cultural heritage, and at the same time, we have also felt the desire of local intellectuals to revitalize local cultural traditions.
Local cultural people actively participate in the investigation, compilation of materials and writing of application documents of local intangible cultural heritage.
Because of their familiarity with local culture and their heartfelt love, they pay special attention to the sovereignty of culture and the demand for the reconstruction of local cultural traditions is particularly strong in the rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage.
The rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage provides important opportunities for the rejuvenation of local cultural traditions.
Although this is not necessarily the original purpose and direct goal of China's rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage, in fact, people have made full use of this rare historical opportunity to directly regard local cultural relics as local symbols in the name of rescue and protection of intangible cultural heritage.
(1) Pay attention to the interdependent relationship between the overall culture and local culture in the process of rebuilding local cultural traditions.
In a consistent ethical and cultural atmosphere that has lasted for thousands of years, China has created rich and effective historical and cultural traditions that are shared by all social levels.
This transcending cultural heritage also depends on the acceptance and transformation of local cultural traditions.
Due to differences in local cultures, local cultures can also produce local cultures that serve people in specific regions and form local cultural symbols.
These local cultures not only enrich and supplement the great cultural traditions, but also make local social life fresh and vivid.
China's local cultural traditions are not only a local self-sufficient cultural whole, but also a subsystem of the overall China culture.
The two complement each other and complement each other.
(2) The reconstruction of local cultural traditions must conform to the local cultural ecological laws and the logic of local cultural history.
Each cultural area has its own cultural character and cultural landscape, and we should be good at exploring and utilizing local cultural resources.
In the exploration of intangible cultural heritage resources in recent years, local people have reasonably summarized and improved local cultural heritage.
People have refined local symbol culture from the rich local culture.
Local symbol culture is not easily extracted.
It requires the inspection, analysis and summary of the local cultural space and group life, and then find out the symbol culture that can reflect the cultural characteristics of the local area.
We should maintain a clear and critical attitude towards taking advantage of the protection of intangible cultural heritage to forge traditions in order to gain local fame and fortune.
(3) The reconstruction of local cultural traditions should follow the principle of cultural tolerance and avoid excessive cultural narcissism and cultural self-sufficiency.
Rebuilding local cultural traditions is to provide a spiritual home for local people and provide a solid cultural foundation for a unified and harmonious overall culture.
Therefore, we should uphold the principles of cultural openness and tolerance, and emotionally identify with our hometown culture on the premise of fully affirming and praising local culture.
At the same time, we should also view local culture rationally to avoid excessive cultural narcissism and cultural self-sufficiency.
We must not only attach importance to the construction of local culture, but also advocate the spirit of cultural flow and cultural sharing.
The reconstruction of local cultural traditions is to a large extent the restoration and development of cultural space.
But this cultural space is closely related to the larger cultural environment and the living background of the entire era.
The local cultural tradition is not a closed and self-sufficient tradition or a self-indulgent tradition.
It is a tradition that constantly communicates with the great cultural tradition and constantly contacts and compares with surrounding local traditions to show its existence.
concluding remarks
Integrating the protection of intangible cultural heritage into the perspective of contemporary new cultural history research and conducting academic research and value evaluation of its social historical significance and cultural reconstruction significance requires the active participation of contemporary scholars.
As intellectuals, they should have cultural sentiments that transcend the limitations of class and class interests.
They should not view intangible cultural heritage work from the perspective of personal gains and losses or populism.
They should play an important role in the protection of intangible cultural heritage and play their due role in promoting it.
In today's context, there are no conditions for traditional culture to occur naturally.
We should do our best to inherit intangible cultural heritage with an active participation attitude.
(This article was originally published in "Heritage and Protection Research", No.
1, 2016)