[Xing Li] Research and development of folklore and protection of intangible cultural heritage
Abstract: In the context of protecting intangible cultural heritage, folklore is developing.
This is reflected in the fact that the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection is consistent with the research of folk customs.
The implementation of intangible cultural heritage protection and the gist of folk customs disciplines are inheritance.
The significance and value of studying folklore are consistent with the significance of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
The discipline theory of folklore has laid a solid foundation for intangible cultural heritage, and the protection of intangible cultural heritage will surely promote the development of folklore and be conducive to China's future cultural development strategy.
Keywords: intangible cultural heritage; folklore; inheritance; cultural development
In the 1980s, China entered a new era of reform and opening up.
Folklore broke free from the stereotypes of "left-leaning" politics and the ideological shackles of the so-called "four old", and ushered in the restoration and development of folk customs disciplines, as well as the trend of publishing books.
In the 30th year of the vigorous development of folklore in the new era, the whole world is responding to the Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage officially adopted by UNESCO on October 17, 2003.
On March 31, 2005, the State Council of China promulgated the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in my Country".
There are also detailed guidelines on protection methods.
Since then, the concept of "intangible cultural heritage" has entered China.
Protecting intangible cultural heritage has become a universal behavior of the country and the people, and it has also eagerly entered a new field of academic research.
1.
Proposing the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection
The concept of intangible cultural heritage protection was put forward by UNESCO when the world is facing an ecological crisis.
Currently, protecting the human living environment and protecting biodiversity has become the consensus of different countries and different ethnic groups.
So far, the earth is the only habitat for mankind.
In the industrial era, nuclear weapons testing, atmosphere destruction, river and air pollution, species are being extinct.
We know that the earth was formed about 5 billion years ago, and the earliest life appeared on the earth about 4 billion years ago.
However, in different historical periods, the extinction of species has attracted great attention from the world.
Before that, there were approximately 5 billion to 40 billion species on earth, which means that only 1% of species survived and 99% of species were extinct.
This makes humans reflect on themselves: Who am I? Where am I going? Humanity is a member of the earth.
What is the relationship between mankind and other living things on the earth? Ecology believes that "human culture must be based on great respect for nature, have a consistent concept with nature, and realize that human affairs must be carried out in harmony and balance with nature." Establishing a new concept of respecting nature and harmony and balance with nature has become the common voice of all mankind and a new concept to promote harmonious development of society.
We must protect a diverse ecological world and a diverse cultural world.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage is proposed on the basis of profound reflection on "modernity".
The current globalization of the economy has brought great changes to cultural models.
Western consumption models and popular culture are spreading around the world.
The universal use of multimedia, convenient transportation, and Internet communication have turned the world into a small global village.
Ecological destruction, environmental pollution, materialistic desires, and people's demands for nature become more and more insatiable.
At the same time, personal needs expand, taking the pursuit of high enjoyment and high consumption as the only pursuit, and giving priority to satisfying individual desires.
This leads to social phenomena such as money worship, loss of integrity, and moral decay.
While people longed for and enjoyed the changes in lifestyles and thinking styles brought about by modernization, they began to soberly reflect on the negative impact of "modernity".
Polish sociologist Sigismund Bauman said in "Modernity and the Holocaust":"Modernity is the result of modern civilization, and the high development of modern civilization transcends the scope of human control and leads to a high degree of barbarism." The so-called "high degree of barbarism" here is not only the unprotected plunder of natural resources, but also the fact that human desires and morality have lost control and are not bound.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage is a consciousness of what kind of lifestyle and culture the future world should have.
Internationally, one of the origins of UNESCO's protection of intangible cultural heritage is the requirements of disadvantaged ethnic groups or groups in terms of cultural sovereignty and spiritual independence.
As early as 1973, the Bolivian government raised the issue of folk customs protection with the Director-General of UNESCO.
This proposal called for attention to disappearing folk customs and the introduction of international legislation to protect the copyright of original folk customs when used by modern media and in various ways.
It believes that folk culture is the foundation of human culture and a precious wealth created by mankind.
It calls on international organizations to cherish and save this disappearing wealth.
As Laurie Hangko points out, Bolivia did not propose this bill to seek help protect or preserve its customs, but to oppose inappropriate use of customs abroad and possibly within its own country.
"This is why UNESCO treated the protection of folk literature as a legal and moral issue from the beginning." The future culture of the world is not the power and coverage, substitution and drowning of one culture over another, but must adhere to the pluralistic coexistence of culture and develop on the premise of protecting the cultural ecology.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage proposed by UNESCO is completely suitable for China's national conditions and is greatly conducive to China's future cultural development strategy.
China is a country with 56 ethnic groups, and China is a big, rich and powerful country with intangible cultural heritage.
Its intangible cultural heritage spreads throughout the east, west, north, south and middle of the motherland.
This is because China is an ancient agricultural country in the world and a country with nomadic culture.
It not only creates and inherits a large amount of intangible cultural heritage, but also spreads agricultural civilization and animal husbandry civilization to the world.
On the other hand, China started industrialization late and still retains quite rich intangible cultural heritage, attracting world attention.
China is a traditional agricultural country and one of the important origins of world agriculture.
While creating and developing material cultural heritage, hard-working China people have also created intangible cultural heritage that is compatible with farming life and nomadic life.
These intangible cultural heritage permeates all aspects of production and life and is extremely rich and colorful.
Moreover, in the course of history, China is a country composed of multiple ethnic groups.
According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 2000 series of festivals of various ethnic groups in China.
China's folk music and folk dance are amazed by the world.
China's folk crafts are beautiful.
China has three world-famous epics.
In particular, the intangible cultural heritage of little-known ethnic minorities is the distinctive historical memory of the ethnic group and the entire history and culture of the ethnic group.
The outlook on life, philosophy, morality, etiquette, religion and aesthetics reflected by it are its unique contributions to the world.
However, due to the long-term misunderstanding of folk culture in the "elimination of superstitions", cultural treasures are regarded as cultural dross, especially due to the great destruction during the "Cultural Revolution", China's intangible cultural heritage has become extinct.
Compared with neighboring countries, Japan and South Korea have protected their own folk cultural heritage since the 1950s, and their laws have clearly defined intangible cultural heritage as "intangible cultural property." This is a concept corresponding to intangible cultural heritage.
At this time, China's folk culture is being destroyed, and historical lessons should be remembered forever.
At present, China is in the early stages of industrialization and informatization development after the reform and opening up, and folk culture that has broken through the "extreme left" politics is rapidly revitalizing; on the other hand, in the context of globalization and economic integration, Western consumer culture is accompanied by the products and advertisements of multinational companies that are promoted through mass media.
These products not only represent the economic strength of the United States, but also demonstrate the expansion and hegemony of its culture.
At this time, the Chinese people who are eager for modernization are divided between good and bad.
Under the "beautiful rain of Europe," many people regard it as a fashion to follow Western values and aesthetics, and regard China's folk culture as nothing.
As Fei Xiaotong said: "Whether it was the reform and reform of 1898, the new cultural movement of the May 4th Movement and the political movements after liberation, they all opposed 'tradition' and 'modernization' under the slogan of breaking the old and establishing the new, and regarded China's cultural traditions as the enemy of 'modernization.'"
Culture is a process of inheritance and succession, as well as a process of innovation.
Tradition is passed on and traditions are also being updated.
China's small and intimate village culture is gradually disintegrating, and urbanization is developing rapidly.
At the same time, the extinction of intangible cultural heritage accompanying village culture is accelerating.
At present, people have gradually clarified the construction direction of comprehensive, scientific and sustainable development, and put the construction of ecological civilization first.
China's intangible cultural heritage is a stable cultural system.
Its value system, behavioral norms, cultural character, cultural spirit, institutional system, and inheritance model have become the source of future cultural development and cultural construction.
Through the concept and rules of intangible cultural heritage, we seek the harmonious coexistence of mankind and nature, the harmonious coexistence of human society, and solve the problem of human spiritual needs.
2.
Folklore is the discipline closest to intangible cultural heritage
China is a major country with intangible cultural heritage relics and a committed country to implementing the protection of intangible cultural heritage to UNESCO.
In the past decade or so, the people, cultural elites and the government have worked together to protect endangered intangible cultural heritage.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage is almost always the protection of folk culture.
Compared with other disciplines such as anthropology, ethnology, sociology, and art, folklore has the deepest connection with the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
It is reflected in the proposal of the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection and the consistency of the protection content with the research of folk customs.
According to the Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted on October 17, 2003, the United Nations describes intangible cultural heritage as follows:
Intangible cultural heritage refers to the various practices, manifestations, expressions, knowledge and skills that are regarded as cultural heritage by communities, groups and sometimes individuals, as well as the tools, objects, handicrafts and cultural spaces associated with them.
It mainly includes: oral culture, folk performing arts; folk crafts, festivals and festivals, and the cultural space where various folk knowledge and various forms of expression exist.
The classification of intangible cultural heritage is very similar to the classification of folk culture, including almost all folk events.
However, folklore scholars generally believe that intangible cultural heritage does not belong to the "grand tradition" institutional culture, nor does it almost belong to the category of elite culture, but belongs to national folk cultural heritage and folk cultural heritage.
The term "folk cultural heritage" has long been common in China, and its concept is almost the same as intangible cultural heritage.
The expression of folk customs here clearly shows that folk customs are an integral part of human cultural heritage.
Intangible cultural heritage is closely related to people's lives and is a collective creation accumulated by the people from generation to generation.
Sericulture, brewing, papermaking, making pens and inkstones, national costumes, and religious sacrifices, whether they are presented in the form of oral culture, physical expression, manual memory or cultural space, are all collective creations and are also the result of continuous selection, superposition, abandonment, and innovation in people's lives.
It is the cultural foundation of a country and a ethnic group.
The various folk phenomena of people's lives studied by folklore are the content of intangible cultural heritage protection.
However, intangible cultural heritage is a social name, which represents the recognition of the item by the whole society.
Whether it is recognized is subject to regulations, so the named folk cultural matters can be called intangible cultural heritage.
The significance and value of studying folklore are consistent with the significance of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
China introduced the term "intangibles" and translated it as "intangible." Intangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage and tangible material cultural heritage are different.
Cultural heritage as defined by the World Convention on Cultural and Natural Heritage mainly includes cultural relics, buildings and sites, which are tangible, touchable, solid and immovable.
Intangible cultural heritage also has visibility, but living, movable, intangible cultural heritage has its core value system and belongs to the category of spiritual heritage.
China's Kunqu Opera, Mongolian long tunes, Dong songs, paper-cutting, Gansu flowers, and Mazu beliefs are all world-class intangible cultural heritage.
Every intangible cultural heritage has its ecological value, historical value, social value, cultural value, and aesthetic value.
Through the process of protection, what we want to inherit is the true value of intangible culture.
The value here does not refer to money, but the spiritual wealth and spiritual heritage that mankind needs to survive.
At present, many people are endlessly pursuing wealth as their lifelong goal, ignoring the destruction of ecology and the disappearance of culture.
The purpose of protecting intangible cultural heritage is not just to stop at a certain specific content, but to make great strides.
In the process of modernization, under the modern social atmosphere of worshiping things, people are told to respect the culture created by vulnerable groups, so that in the modern impetuous materialistic society, people are inspired to realize that what human beings need is mutual respect.
The spirit of mutual care.
At the same time, it informs people that spiritual wealth is more important than material wealth.
These material wealth exists in intangible cultural heritage, and these wealth is disappearing in large quantities.
When it disappears, mankind realizes that it is extremely valuable.
The "spiritual wealth" mentioned here refers to the protection of intangible cultural heritage proposed by the academic community.
While today's science and technology have promoted the progress of human society, it has brought about damage to the environment and culture, as well as new inequalities between people and countries.
This is the "ecological standard evaluation" proposed by the academic community for intangible cultural heritage.
There are at least three levels here: first, what value and significance does the heritage of ancestors have for human beings to protect the environment, and how should humans protect the environment before they can develop; second, what kind of wealth view humans should hold, which is the endless pursuit of material wealth is still based on the quality of life and its sustainability, pursuing and possessing human spiritual virtues; The third is how to respect and treat vulnerable groups and the culture of vulnerable groups and protect the rights and interests of vulnerable groups today when world cultures are converging.
Intangible cultural heritage is not only a cultural way and behavioral way.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage is related to ecological protection and harmony, and to the stability and harmonious development of mankind.
It is related to the life goals of mankind in the future world and the construction of sustainable civilization.
It is precisely at this point that in today's industrialization, mankind reflects on the ecological concept of agricultural society through the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and explores and reflects on the multiple values and moral concepts it contains, which is consistent with the research of folklore.
The purpose has a convergent side.
The sincere sacrifices, interesting food, colorful costumes, friendship songs, and cheerful dances during the festival reflect the people's inner demands, candid hopes and confidence in the future.
Every ethnic group has its own culture, and sustainable development is not a cultural development in which a big country or a big nation occupies the highest position.
Sustainable development is the development of multiple cultures.
Only by protecting the right to hold and speak the culture of each ethnic group, can mankind's extremely rich cultural heritage not be lost.
National folk culture has a strong local roots, and this local roots are the symbol and representation of the national spirit and the driving force and source of national self-confidence and self-esteem.At this point, the purpose of studying folklore is consistent with the purpose of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
The implementation of intangible cultural heritage protection and the gist of folk customs disciplines are inheritance.
The background of protecting intangible cultural heritage is in the era of industrial civilization.
Intangible cultural heritage is accumulated layer by layer by human beings in agricultural civilization.
This is a cultural memory that cannot be extinguished and the spiritual source for the future development of mankind.
The essence of protecting intangible cultural heritage is to establish a true dialogue among cultures.
Only through equal dialogue among cultures can the cultural spirit be passed down from generation to generation.
Intangible cultural heritage is created by communities and passed down among groups in specific regions and groups of specific ethnic groups.
This is the essential feature of intangible cultural heritage.
Intangible cultural heritage is a kind of spiritual heritage, and the cultural spirit it inherits is people rather than things.
From this person to that person, from the heart to the body.
Fresh and agile talents are the object and purpose of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Therefore, when talking about the protection of intangible cultural heritage, special emphasis is placed on "living" inheritance.
In this regard, it is precisely the same as the research purpose of folk customs.
The artist who inherited the epic "Janggar" is called "Janggar", and the artist who inherited the epic "Manas" is called "Manasqi".
They are all "I sing my heart".
The inheritors of intangible cultural heritage protection are named and recognized by society.
The Ministry of Culture promulgated the Interim Measures for the Identification and Management of Representative Inheritors of National Intangible Cultural Heritage Projects.
The inheritors of intangible cultural heritage have dual meanings: on the one hand, they belong to the inheritors of folk customs that are naturally formed in people's daily lives or formed through folk methods such as inheritance, apprenticeship, etc.; on the other hand, they are the legal inheritors determined by relevant experts in accordance with legal procedures and in accordance with internationally recognized standards, governments and academia through review.
Once determined as an inheritor, he can enjoy the special rights granted by the law and bear the obligations stipulated by the law.
Of course, not all inheritors of folk customs are inheritors of intangible cultural heritage.
As stated above, there is a process for inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to be identified.
The inheritors of intangible cultural heritage protection not only protect the transmission of their skills and knowledge, but also pass on them through the inheritors who carry folk knowledge and folk skills during the inheritance process, establishing an equal dialogue among various cultures and highlighting the cultural connotations and cultural spirit therein to achieve the goal of "harmony but difference".
Here we again emphasize the definition of inheritance, which, according to Roman law, means: "The sum of all such family property is understood not in terms of money, but in terms of whether it is worth inheriting." "They" here do not refer to the government and cultural elites, but to the owners of these wealth-the people.
This is the true meaning and original intention of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Coincidentally, the essence of folklore is inheritance, while intangible cultural heritage must protect the inheritors.
The study of folklore and the implementation of intangible cultural heritage protection both emphasize and recognize human inheritance.
The public is an important carrier, transmitter and enjoyment of intangible cultural heritage.
For example, the inheritance of Dong songs not only includes tunes and singing skills, but also the most important thing is to convey the various values of Dong songs through "living form" singing.
and cultural spirit.
When it comes to specific inheritance methods, it may be individual-to-individual inheritance, but it is more of a group inheritance.
Its true meaning and connotation means that we are not protecting the cultural content of certain intangible cultural heritage in isolation, but pay more attention to its cultural value.
It should also be the holder of intangible cultural heritage-inheritors.
Research and protection.
Only in this way can the true purpose and significance of intangible cultural heritage protection be achieved.
3.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage promotes the development of folk disciplines
Although there is a deep kinship between intangible cultural heritage protection and folklore, the two cannot be equated.
Faced with the destruction of intangible cultural heritage around the world, the ecological crisis and cultural rupture brought about by rapid industrialization and modernization, and for the sustainable development of mankind, UNESCO has put forward the idea of protecting intangible cultural heritage.
It is an international act.
As an emerging discipline that is both localized and international, folklore has gone through more than 160 years.
For a long time, folklore was believed to be a remnant of a "Folk" from the distant past.
Folklore in many countries has an academic orientation from the outset to salvage the cultural relics of the past from the rapidly changing modern life.
The research on folklore theory and the practice of protection by scholars from all over the world call for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
It can also be said that the existence of the discipline theory of folklore has laid a solid foundation for intangible cultural heritage and has become the cornerstone of intangible cultural heritage protection.
In the past decade or so, it has been the common responsibility and behavior of the China government, the public and folklore scholars to protect intangible cultural heritage.
Folklore scholars have written a considerable number of books and thousands of academic papers, and folklore scholars have directly participated in the discussion, census, review and naming work at all levels of intangible cultural heritage protection theory.
Some scholars have put forward positive criticisms and suggestions on the shortcomings in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
Folklore scholars directly participated in field surveys of inheritors of a number of representative national-level intangible cultural heritage projects, and held workshops for inheritors, becoming the main force in protection work.
Thanks to the efforts of the government, folklore scholars and various social forces, after China's Guqin, Kunqu Opera, Mongolian Long Tune and other projects entered the list of representative works of human intangible cultural heritage, in 2009, 22 projects including the Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese Paper-cutting, Dong Nationality Big Song, Gesus, Regong Art, Tibetan Opera, Manas, Hua 'er, Chinese Korean Agricultural Music and Dance, and Humai were also selected into the list of representative works of human intangible cultural heritage.
Among them, folk cultural projects belonging to various ethnic groups account for a large proportion.
At present, 34 items in China have entered the world-class intangible cultural heritage list.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage has enhanced the cultural status and cultural self-esteem of ethnic minorities in China.
Some ethnic groups in China have little elite culture, and folk culture is their cultural wealth and cultural heritage.
They have always been marginalized.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage allows their wealth to be recognized by society and allows them to enjoy fair treatment.
This is enough to enhance the cultural self-esteem and cultural self-confidence of China people, and enhance our status and prestige in the world's cultural forest.
Here, we should not simply understand the protection of intangible cultural heritage as the government's response to UNESCO's initiatives and actions.
China's achievements in the protection of intangible cultural heritage in just over a decade are the people's awareness of the value of the cultural wealth they hold, especially after these precious assets in China have experienced the suffering of the "extreme leftist" trend of thought, the people's restoration of various folk customs means that their multiple values should be re-evaluated.
In the context of globalization, it is urgent to establish a diversified cultural dialogue mechanism.
The continued protection of intangible cultural heritage has greatly enhanced the status of folklore.
Evaluating folklore from the perspective of future cultural development will inevitably strengthen the confidence of folklore scholars in establishing a folklore discipline and promote discussions on the theoretical and practical aspects of folklore.
Intangible cultural heritage's discussion of cultural space and the protection of inheritors also provide new reference for in-depth research on folklore.
Folklore scholars will promote the construction of folklore disciplines amid the prominent tension in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.
(This article was published in "National Art", No.
2, 2017.
The annotations are omitted.
See the original issue for details)