[Zhao Yingfang] Practice and Thinking on the Recording and Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the New Era
Abstract: Recording is a basic work in intangible cultural heritage protection.
Records should include a complete inspection of a certain culture, and should remain dynamically updated to fully record its development and changes.
The establishment of the intangible cultural heritage list should focus on the large and let the small be allowed to enter and exit.
For intangible cultural heritage projects that are of little value or cannot be preserved alive with the development of inheritance practice, there is no need to forcibly inherit them, and only need to be recorded and preserved in a materialized manner in a museum.
Productive protection is not limited to the production of traditional handicrafts.
Folk art and folk festivals should be market-oriented, transformed and innovative, and combined with current aesthetic and application scenarios.
The purpose of overall protection of intangible cultural heritage is to protect the cultural ecology and inheritance environment of intangible cultural heritage.
The commercial development of the cultural and ecological protection experimental zone seems to mean the destruction of traditional cultural ecology, but there are also true traditions in "pseudo-folk customs".
Whether innovation can become a tradition in the future requires practice and time to verify.
Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage; intangible cultural heritage list; productive protection; holistic protection; cultural and ecological protection experimental area
Since China officially joined the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention") in 2004, China's "intangible cultural heritage" protection has gone through the initial initial stage and the intermediate "heritage application craze".
In recent years, intangible cultural heritage protection work has gradually been standardized, entering a new era of consolidating the achievements of rescue and protection and enhancing the vitality of inheritance practice.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage has achieved remarkable results, but there are still many problems.
This article will discuss the three aspects of record preservation, productive protection and overall protection of intangible cultural heritage, further deepen and clarify the understanding and concept of intangible cultural heritage protection, and discuss how to balance the balance between tradition and innovation in the new era.
1.
Record preservation of intangible cultural heritage
According to the United Nations Convention and my country's Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, intangible cultural heritage protection refers to various measures to ensure the vitality of intangible cultural heritage, mainly including the identification, recording, filing, research, preservation, protection, inheritance, especially through formal and informal education) and dissemination of all aspects of heritage.
Among them, identification, recording, filing, research and preservation are the basic work of intangible cultural heritage protection.
They are not only the prerequisite for protection, but also the basis for inheritance and promotion.
Census is the primary task of intangible cultural heritage protection, including collecting works and describing folk customs, and making comprehensive, systematic and true records.
After the census, the census results should be systematized, sorted out, saved and filed, and a database should be established.
Records should include a complete inspection of a certain culture, and should remain dynamically updated to fully record its development and changes.
There was a tradition of collecting customs in ancient China.
In ancient times, folk songs were called "wind." Through collecting customs, we learned about folk customs and observed people's sentiments.
The Book of Songs, the first collection of poems in China, is based on collected folk songs and ballads.
Developed countries such as Europe and the United States are pioneers in the protection of historical and cultural heritage.
As early as the 1960s, France was the first to adopt a census and registration system for cultural heritage, including intangible cultural heritage, to determine the historical and cultural value of various heritage sites, and to introduce relevant laws and regulations.
Japan introduced the registration system in the 1990s and actively implemented it.
Today, the registration system is a widely adopted and proven effective method of intangible cultural heritage protection around the world.
my country has established an intangible cultural heritage list system in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People's Republic of China," which is similar to the registration system, that is, intangible cultural heritage projects that embody the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation and have historical, literary, artistic and scientific values are included in the list and protected at different levels.
At present, the intangible cultural heritage list system at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels has gradually been completed.
China is currently the country with the largest amount of intangible cultural heritage in the world.
In my country, after a policy is promulgated, it can easily become a national movement that "attaches great importance" to a "century-old plan." Behind the excitement and enthusiasm for applying for a cultural heritage are economic interests.
Before the formal use of the concept of intangible cultural heritage, the original United Nations documents always used folk creation (folk traditional culture) to refer to this term."Folk creation"(or traditional folk culture) refers to all creations from a certain community, including Language, literature, music, dance, etiquette, handicrafts, architectural art and others, covering all aspects of food, clothing, housing, transportation and entertainment, and is actually traditional folk culture.
Whether it is the United Nations Convention or my country's Intangible Cultural Heritage Law, as well as the national-level Intangible Cultural Heritage List published by my country, we can all see that today's "intangible cultural heritage" is actually passed down from generation to generation by a nation.
A lifestyle that continues and develops in daily life is a visible and participatory life.
In other words, intangible cultural heritage is people's production and lifestyle.
In Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places, protecting intangible cultural heritage is a national consensus.
The protection of intangible cultural heritage has long been institutionalized and normalized, and pervades life like the air.
Since 2006, the State Council has approved and announced four batches of 1372 national-level representative intangible cultural heritage projects, and provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have announced 15550 provincial-level representative projects.
After nearly ten years of intangible cultural heritage work, the number of existing representative intangible cultural heritage projects that have been selected is close to saturation, and there is a trend in society to generalize "intangible cultural heritage".
Even from the perspective of financial and human resources, it is unrealistic to expand the unlimited expansion of my country's intangible cultural heritage protection projects.
First of all, not all "intangible cultural heritage" must be entered into the protected list and must be passed down forever.
The evolution and even extinction of intangible cultural heritage is a natural and inevitable process.
For some "intangible cultural heritage" projects that are not suitable for social development, are not highly related to people's lives, and cannot be preserved in a living manner, we believe that there is no need to consume manpower and material resources to forcibly inherit them.
Perhaps the only thing that can be done is to record them in files and protect them in museums.
With the advancement of the modernization process, the disappearance of some intangible cultural heritage is irresistible and inevitable.
This is a real situation facing the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
Intangible cultural heritage is part of traditional life.
Tradition is changing, and intangible cultural heritage is constantly innovating.
When the social, economic and political environment changes, certain cultural forms will also change or even die out.
As the saying goes,"If the skin does not exist, how will the hair attach?" The intangible cultural heritage preserved to this day must have "entered the WTO" and still lived in people's production and life.
This is a practical process of historical accumulation and public choice.
For the protection of intangible cultural heritage projects, we should focus on the big ones and let go of the small ones, highlight the key points, and select inheritors who truly have historical, cultural and artistic value, are truly representative, have practical skills and individual characteristics for protection and inheritance.
There is no need to seek more and complete.
In practice, intangible cultural heritage declarations have the problem of "large quantity and low quality".
Some local cultural researchers blindly exaggerate the status and value of local intangible cultural heritage because of their strong regional complex, and even forge historical facts, resulting in mixed eyes in intangible cultural heritage declarations.
chaos.
An overall evaluation and consideration should be carried out for the declared intangible cultural heritage projects, and some projects that do not have contemporary value or have low protection value should be excluded from the scope of protection.
Secondly, the intangible cultural heritage list should be dynamic and accessible.
Tradition is an endless river of history.
It has a clear origin, but also constantly integrates into new sources and gives birth to new life.
The inheritance of traditional culture to this day is largely a state of natural freedom rather than the result of human intervention.
Some intangible cultural heritage has disappeared, such as labor trumpets; some intangible cultural heritage has gradually faded out of practical and technical functions and become artistic, such as brush calligraphy; some have been passed down and carried forward.
Old intangible cultural heritage is disappearing, and new intangible cultural heritage is also being generated.
This is a dynamic and balanced development process.
In this case, the intangible cultural heritage that has entered the list and is now protected may not disappear in the future, and the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage may not always fulfill their inheritance obligations with due diligence.
Naturally, the list of intangible cultural heritage projects and the list of representatives should also change dynamically.
In practice, a project can only be withdrawn from inheritance practice because the inheritor passed away or was unable to adapt to modern society and is really difficult to continue.
There is an international precedent for this.
For example, Japan delisted some "intangible cultural property" that cannot be passed down.
In the past 10 years, the Ministry of Culture has been classifying projects reported by various localities that are considered by local governments to be intangible cultural heritage, and rejecting those intangible cultural heritage projects that are not sufficiently representative, of low quality, and that do not comply with legal provisions.
In 2012, the Ministry of Culture cancelled or merged a number of intangible cultural heritage projects for the first time, giving red cards to 105 protected units.
Some have changed their protection units, and some inheritors have been disqualified for failing to perform their obligations.
In practice, it is necessary to closely follow the essential characteristics of intangible cultural heritage, gradually improve the evaluation and identification standards of intangible cultural heritage, study and formulate a list of intangible cultural heritage projects and the identification and management system of representative inheritors, and establish a reasonable review and evaluation exit mechanism., so that intangible cultural heritage that should really be paid attention to can be effectively protected.
To view the challenges of the times faced by intangible cultural heritage, we need to have a big historical view.
The ancient Greek civilization was so bright that it could not escape the fate of disappearance, but even if excellent culture disappeared, it would have a profound impact on future generations.
The ancient Greeks made extraordinary achievements in many aspects such as philosophical thought, history, architecture, science, literature, drama, sculpture, etc., and played an important role in the construction of the Western civilization system.
With the formation of Western civilization's dominant position in the world, It affected the entire human world.
Art anthropologist Fang Lili once used the concept of natural ecology to explain the evolution and replacement of intangible cultural heritage.
She believes that just like natural ecosystems, human cultural development is also a process of constant change and succession.
In this process of succession, the original culture has become the organic matter, spores and seeds for the growth of new culture, which is the intrinsic elements and foundation needed for the formation of new culture.
Culture is constantly changing and evolving in this way.
Culture is living, and changes in intangible cultural heritage are inevitable.
To protect intangible cultural heritage, the most basic task is to organize and record it, and to retain intangible intangible cultural heritage in tangible and materialized solid archives.
We don't have to worry about the demise of some intangible cultural heritage.
Mr.
Fei Xiaotong said that as a living organism, it will not be resurrected after death, but as a cultural living organism, it will be resurrected again as long as there are environmental and social needs, achieving rejuvenation under appropriate circumstances, and becoming the current and future cultural innovation.
The foundation and source of innovation.
The establishment of a database is very important, especially for projects that face serious difficulties in inheritance and have not yet found practical protection measures.
It is necessary to use modern scientific and technological means to continuously improve and update the intangible cultural heritage database, and use multimedia such as audio, video, pictures and even digital to record and preserve various traditional cultural contents and their history of emergence, development and evolution as comprehensively as possible.
The core content and the unique skills and other relevant materials of representative inheritors are recorded, which can be retrieved, decomposed, researched, educated and disseminated by future generations.
2.
Productive protection
If the recording of intangible cultural heritage on file is negative protection, the intangible cultural heritage that still has market demand and audience recognition should be actively protected and maintained today, so that it can gain new development and vitality in contemporary society.
inheritance.
Living inheritance is a special requirement for intangible cultural heritage protection and a more profound protection.
The proposal of productive protection methods provides a new path for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
The meaning of "productive protection" actually refers to the fact that some traditional arts, skills and activities can enter the production and consumption market through commercial activities and develop in the contemporary cultural environment, thereby truly realizing protection and revitalization.
It is generally believed that the productive protection of intangible cultural heritage mainly applies to traditional crafts.
In fact, traditional folk art, such as folk songs and dances, traditional folk art, etc., also needs to be created for the market and the public.
Even folk festivals should be integrated with the market, modern people's consumption habits, and economic benefits while maintaining their connotation.
This is also productive protection in the broad sense.
The English equivalent to intangible cultural heritage is the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Strictly speaking, in the Chinese context, intangible cultural heritage is a term that may cause misunderstanding and ambiguity.
Heritage means something that is dead, outdated, or declining, or at least a culture that no longer fully functions.
Heritage in English means inheritance and inheritance.
In Japan, the corresponding term for intangible cultural heritage is "intangible cultural property", and intangible cultural heritage inheritors are called "national treasures on earth", which expresses the characteristics and value of intangible cultural heritage very vividly.
Intangible cultural heritage is not a "legacy", but should be a living lifestyle and values.
Part of the intangible cultural heritage such as traditional skills, folk songs and dances, and folk culture have disappeared with the changes of traditional production and lifestyles, but the other part is continuing to exist in people's lives through transformation and innovation, becoming a cultural and economic development of modern society.
Cultural resources needed.
There are still people who advocate that intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance should maintain the "original ecology" and "authenticity", that is, the so-called original inheritance.
If the emphasis is too much, it will not only be inconsistent with the historical reality of cultural inheritance, but will also transform the vivid cultural tradition into a rigid mummy.
Tradition is gradually accumulated from scratch and from single to rich in long-term practice.
The social background for the development of traditional intangible cultural heritage culture is completely different from today's social and economic development and lifestyle.
Therefore, there is no fixed version or true appearance of intangible cultural heritage.
Invariance is temporary, and change is eternal.
One of the reasons why "A Bite of China 3" has been criticized is that its concepts are corrupt, it respects the past and suppresses the present, and it always conveys its praise of farming civilization, its admiration and emotion for ancient methods and handicrafts.
The earliest are not necessarily the best, but are more likely to be ignorant and backward.
If intangible cultural heritage cannot bring new creativity, appreciate and share it by the audience, it will be difficult to form cultural identity, and it will be impossible to achieve living inheritance and sustainable development.
When protecting intangible cultural heritage in a productive way, we should further emancipate our minds and clarify our ideas.
The first is to face the market.
Intangible cultural heritage is practical.
Without public practice, audience, use and appreciation, it cannot constitute a complete cultural tradition.
Some skills such as steelscales, abacus, swords, etc.
have gradually weakened in the industrial era and can only be preserved as a cultural heritage and are no longer suitable for productive protection.
Other traditional skills, such as textile, porcelain making, tea making, etc., have commercial characteristics.
In traditional China society, they are lifestyles that people cannot leave for a moment.
The reason why they can be produced and developed is because there is a market and consumer demand, so they can be passed down for thousands of years.
Development is the last word.
The better production and innovation are carried out and the larger the audience, the more dynamic this legacy will be.
The inheritance and practical ability of the inheritor not only includes knowledge and skills, but also the ability to obtain economic benefits.
The products and services produced or created by intangible cultural heritage inheritors (both material and spiritual levels) are recognized by the market, creating social and economic benefits, providing the inheritors with a dignified social living space, thereby stimulating the inheritors to create innovation, and so on.
Only then can a virtuous cycle be formed.
Survival is the first priority, otherwise he will inevitably choose other lifestyle that will allow him to survive with dignity.
The second is to refine and study deeply and improve your skills.
The inheritance and development of handicrafts require patience and excellence, and can be combined with current aesthetic and application scenarios to create a brand with core competitiveness.In China, there are many handicraft cities, such as Jingdezhen, the hometown of ceramics, Yixing, the hometown of purple pottery in Jiangsu, and Zhenhu, the hometown of embroidery, where hundreds of thousands of craftsmen gather to learn from each other and innovate the new.
In Japan, the spirit of craftsmanship is brought to the extreme.
Every item is humane and interesting, carefully crafted and full of beauty.
Therefore, only by Japanese manufacturing can gain huge popularity and benefits internationally.
China claims to be a major textile country and the birthplace of the Silk Road, but top silk textiles are not made in China.
Luxury brand Hermès silk scarves are only preferred in China, and the textile and printing and dyeing processes are completed in Lyon, France.
People are impetuous and produce quickly.
In a short period of time, it seems that productive protection has been achieved through an industrial project.
However, the cultivation of craftsmanship spirit is far from overnight.
For the long-term development of a skill, the inheritor devotes himself to studying, improving his skills, and improving his own artistic cultivation and aesthetic ability are fundamental.
The third is technological innovation.
In the long process of development of production skills, technological innovation has never been interrupted.
From pure manual to semi-mechanical and semi-manual, to the introduction of new materials and tools, and the introduction of modern production and technical standards, on the one hand, production costs have been reduced, labor has been saved, and product quality has been improved.
Some products have also achieved large-scale production.
For example, nanotechnology is applied to embroidery to make it not afraid of water, dirt, and mold; in the making of kites, kites are combined with wheel shafts to place them higher and further; some carpenters combine computers with manual carving to make the decoration on furniture rich and vivid, and so on.
The combination of handicrafts and high technology is becoming a trend.
The combination of tradition and modernity and high technology has improved the competitiveness of intangible cultural heritage, revitalized traditional skills, and even became an important local economic growth point.
There are also many issues and concepts that need to be clarified on how to understand and view handicrafts and handicrafts under the conditions of industrialization.
At present, there are still many people who make handicrafts mysterious and mistakenly equate production methods limited by materials and technology simply with tradition.
They believe that the intimacy between traditional skills and modern technology is "emphasizing techniques rather than traditional methods", and believe that commercialization and large-scale production will ignore the spiritual connotations of intangible cultural heritage production such as rituals and skills.
The most basic connotation of handmade production is: the important intervention of individual unique handicrafts in the production process, which must be a characteristic that cannot be replaced by high technology, such as the creativity of modeling, the blending and seasoning skills of the winemaker in the wine-making process.
Materials and tools are both a reflection of specific resource constraints and a certain stage of scientific and technological level.
Traditional handicrafts do not exclude the improvement of tools.
In fact, a purely handmade industry that does not use any mechanical assistance at all no longer exists, such as chopping, rolling and shearing in pasta processing; professional filtering of wine-making water and body impurities in the wine-making process.
Eliminating auxiliary machinery is not only unrealistic, but also contrary to the development of human civilization.
Inheriting and passing on the original flavor of traditional skills passed down by our ancestors is unorthodox, neither necessary nor good.
What should be traditional should be traditional, and what should be modern should be modern.
Traditional production methods and modern industrial production methods should complement each other and coexist.
The earliest function of traditional folk art may have been sacrifice, but later changed from entertaining gods to entertaining people, becoming a necessary spiritual and cultural product in people's lives.
The process of urbanization and modernization has also caused intangible cultural heritage projects such as traditional folk art to face an unprecedented inheritance crisis.
Especially with the rapid development of the Internet, entertainment forms have become increasingly diverse, and the living space for traditional folk art performances has shrunk day by day.
Under the conditions of market economy, market consumption behavior has become an important indicator to measure the influence of cultural activities.
The creation and production of folk art should also be continuously improved and compete.
Only with the acceptance and appreciation of the audience can this cultural style survive.
Protecting intangible cultural heritage is not only to protect yesterday's culture, but also to create tomorrow's new culture.
It is necessary to "follow the rules of the ancients and create our own new horizons" to realize the creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese culture.
Some artists draw nutrients and elements from intangible cultural heritage projects and realize the inheritance and innovation of traditional art.
Cai Guoqiang's installation art work "Straw Boat Borrowing Arrow" is based on the story of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"; Yang Liping's new peacock dance is born out of the Dai peacock dance; Tan Dun's music works are also contemporary art created by the integration and innovation of local ethnic minority music with symphony; The classic "Flying Sky" image of Mogao Grottoes has also been used in popular game styles.
The author believes that there is no need to worry that the packaging and polishing of traditional arts such as opera and folk art will be divorced from tradition, hurt and their cultural genes.
Perhaps the only way can intangible cultural heritage break through the bottleneck and win more audiences, especially young people.
The Ethical Principles for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage also emphasize that special attention should be paid to the participation of young people.
According to the "Growth Report on Intangible Cultural Heritage Time-honored Brands" released by Taobao, among Taobao consumers who purchased intangible cultural heritage and time-honored brands in 2018, the proportion of people born in the 1980s was approximately 39%, and the proportion of people born in the 1990s reached 32%.
The younger generation has become the main force in traditional cultural consumption.
Only by allowing more young people to become consumers and communicators can traditional culture continue to be revitalized.
The youth version of Kunqu Opera "The Peony Pavilion" is a successful case.
In order to attract young audiences, the young version of Kunqu Opera "The Peony Pavilion" uses all young actors in the casting.
The singing of traditional Kunqu Opera is too long and slow, making it difficult for the audience to accept it.
The crew borrowed from Western operas in singing and melody, and added a large amount of intermission music and dance music.
In terms of clothing and stage beauty, they are also bold and innovative.
It is reported that the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" has reduced the age of the audience of Kunqu Opera by 30 years.
Since its performance in 2004, it has been widely praised in major universities, improving students 'aesthetic sentiments and artistic taste, and becoming a phenomenon in the opera world.
work.
After encountering the huge variables of the Internet and Mobile device, traditional folk art generally faces the problem of how to integrate with new forms, take advantage of the situation to change, and find new ways out.
In recent years, traditional cross talk has also been trying to innovate and develop.
After continuous cultivation of offline performances and online variety shows, the cross talk market is constantly seeking commercial paths.
Nowadays, the interests and consumption habits of young audiences have been "Internet-based".
If traditional folk art forms want to integrate into current society, they need to strive for today's young audiences, have more detailed "user thinking", and conduct in-depth research on the current variety market.
"New Year Crosstalk Gala" and "Crosstalk with Newcomers" both feature "cross-border".
They adopt novel methods of "mix and match" in content and form, showing the traditional folk art of cross talk from a new perspective.
In order to attract young consumer groups, in addition to innovation in content, we must also embed the consumption of traditional folk art into various consumption places to improve the level of convenience of cultural consumption.
For example, in a very contemporary shopping mall in Tokyo, the Noh Theater, one of the traditional Japanese art forms, is embedded on the basement floor.
It is very popular among young people, and the daily performance is in short supply.
Operators believe that the more "modern" a shopping mall, the more it must have elements that make young consumers feel unfamiliar.
In China, Chongqing's Ciqikou Ancient Town and Hongyadong, a popular Internet celebrity site, set up multiple theaters in densely populated folk food streets and commercial streets to perform traditional arts such as Sichuan Opera and Kunqu Opera, attracting many young consumers.
Folk festivals occupy an important position in intangible cultural heritage.
Traditional festivals are one of the main contents of folk culture.
They carry rich historical and cultural connotations and are a cultural space where people's spiritual beliefs, aesthetic tastes, values and other ethical relationships and consumption habits are intensively displayed and passed on.
As traditional social life scenes disappear, the content of festival customs will inevitably change accordingly.
This is natural and does not come from artificial promotion and support, but is a positive result of cultural evolution and social life adjustment.
There is no need for us to completely copy the folk customs of the past.
If China wants to revitalize traditional festivals, we need to enrich the cultural connotation of traditional festivals and form new festival customs, so that the most basic cultural genes of the Chinese nation can adapt to contemporary culture and coordinate with modern society.
Some folk customs that conflict with the concept of modern civilization should be abandoned without regret.
Take the Spring Festival as an example.
The customs of the Spring Festival include worshipping ancestors, pasting door gods, pasting New Year pictures, wearing new clothes, setting off firecrackers, observing the New Year, New Year greetings, eating dumplings, etc.
In the modern home environment, door god New Year pictures are not easy to paste and are out of date, and have gradually faded out of life scenes.
Text messaging, WeChat New Year greetings and red envelopes are becoming new folk customs.
Setting off fireworks and firecrackers in large cities with high buildings and dense population not only causes fires and explosions, but also causes noise pollution and air pollution, endangering human health.
As a bad habit, it has been explicitly prohibited in many cities.
"People-oriented" and "advancing with the times" should become the basic principles for the inheritance of folk festivals.
Traditional festivals have positive evolutionary capabilities.
From a practical point of view, major traditional festivals are indeed actively adjusting, and the focus of many traditional festivals and festivals has shifted, with "modern customs".
For example, the Qixi Festival custom originally evolved from the witchcraft of begging for children to the custom of begging for cleverness in the Han Dynasty, and later incorporated into the legend of the loyal love of the cowherd and the Weaver Girl.
Today's Qixi Festival has evolved into "Valentine's Day in China." Merchants have launched various products and services for "lovers" and participated in love-themed activities such as dating and making friends, which has become the "new folk custom" of the Qixi Festival.
Many folklore scholars oppose this, believing that it is far-fetched, and strongly advocate restoring the theme of begging for cleverness on Qixi Festival.
However, needlework is no longer the daily labor of today's women, and the custom of begging for cleverness has lost its support in life.
Nowadays, it is neither possible nor necessary to completely copy the past festivals and customs and things and stick to traditional forms.
The love theme of Qixi Festival has gained more and more recognition.
In addition, there is no need to exclude foreign festivals such as Christmas and Valentine's Day because of the emphasis on tradition.
In a sense, it complements our traditional festivals.
Traditional festivals are becoming world cultural heritage.
The rapid development of modern technology has narrowed the distance between time and space on the earth.
As the saying goes,"the world is cold and hot", people all expect to have all festivals full of human beauty and interest.
The future of world civilization may tend to be homogeneous, and it is inevitable that new folk customs will converge in color.
Over time, these foreign festivals may gradually become part of our festival customs.
Folk festivals will surely be increasingly integrated into the content of modern life and be constantly injected with new connotations.
We emphasize the protection of traditional festivals and customs, mainly to protect their most basic cultural genes and symbolic meanings.
It is worth mentioning that the cultural heritage of China's traditional festivals is gradually being diluted from people's memories, especially young people, such as the Qingming Festival outing, the Mid-Autumn Festival viewing of the moon, and the Dragon Boat Festival removing diseases and disasters.
Traditional festivals seem to have become "holidays" for eating, drinking and having fun, but the cultural connotations they contain are constantly being simplified and ignored.
National traditional festivals are an important force in gathering national emotions and stimulating cultural identity.
More young people should be allowed to have an in-depth understanding of the spiritual connotation and cultural traditions of various traditional festivals and folk culture, and cultivate young people's sense of cultural identity.
In contemporary society, folk festivals are not only an important carrier of traditional culture, but also an important cultural resource.
Consumer society and economic globalization not only transform material products, but also spiritual activities into market consumption behaviors.
The public participation and influence of folk festivals are often proportional to their economic value.
Christmas is originally a religious festival, but also a national consumption carnival.
In the United States, the five-week period from Thanksgiving to Christmas is called the Christmas shopping season.
The year-end shopping season has gradually become the key to consumer companies 'annual profits.
Many merchants' sales during this period can account for one-third of the whole year.
Sales for the 2018 U.S.
Christmas shopping season exceeded the US$1 trillion mark.
To protect and inherit traditional festivals, we must pay attention to their economic value, be market-oriented, combine with modern people's consumption habits, and pay special attention to attracting the younger generation of consumer groups.
3.
Overall protection
Integral protection is an important principle for intangible cultural heritage protection.
The survival and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage are inseparable from the environment that breeds and nourishes it.
The overall protection of intangible cultural heritage means that intangible cultural heritage protection has shifted from a single project protection to protecting the cultural environment in which intangible cultural heritage can be nurtured and maintaining cultural and ecological balance.
The cultural ecosystem includes many factors such as nature, economy, politics, society, people, and environment.
Intangible cultural heritage always exists in a specific cultural space.
On one side, water and soil, on the other side, fish and rice, different environments create different intangible cultural heritage.
Each brick and stone, each grass and tree, local food and rural slang nourish and create a unique local customs like spring breeze and rain.
As the saying goes,"There are different styles in ten miles, and different customs in a hundred miles." If you preserve an intangible cultural heritage variety in isolation away from the living environment, you will lose its vivid and vivid true colors, and it will be difficult to achieve living inheritance.
"I first knew that I could hear from the golden cage, but I couldn't cry freely in the woods." Intangible cultural heritage is a whole cultural phenomenon, not just a single object.
Only by carrying out overall and in-depth protection from the lifestyle level can we truly experience and understand the rich and rich significance of intangible cultural heritage.
For example, folk paper-cutting should be posted on windows during festivals, weddings or other folk activities to express beautiful meanings such as harmony and harmony, good harvests and health, and joy and fulfillment, and arouse the broadest emotional resonance and recognition.
If we let it be divorced from the folk context and daily life, set it in glass frames and placed in art galleries, and become an aesthetic object of meditation, the living art will be ossified.
The concept of holistic protection of cultural heritage was first advocated by European countries.
After experiencing energy crises and ecological pollution, developed countries in Europe and the United States began to pay attention to the interactive relationship between culture and natural ecology, proposing that cultural heritage and natural heritage should be protected as a whole.
The most representative one is the establishment of ecological museums.
The development concept of eco-museums is to integrate cultural protection into the generated cultural space and natural environment,"protect people and houses together", thereby preventing cultural degradation and protecting cultural diversity.
my country's practice of holistic protection of intangible cultural heritage began with the introduction of the concept of "ecological museum" in the museum community in the 1990s.
In 1995, China and Norway built my country's first ecological museum in Suoga, Guizhou.
Most of my country's early ecological museums were concentrated in the southwest region with rich and colorful cultural features.
Guizhou has built Suoga, Huaxi, Tang 'an, Longli and Dimen Ecological Museums in the form of Sino-foreign cooperation; Guangxi has implemented the "10 + 1" model, and Guangxi museums have jointly built 10 ecological museums including Nandanli Lake and Sanjiang.
Ecological museums are not aimed at rural areas.
Most European and American countries are concentrated in urban communities and are called community museums.
Since 2010, my country has begun to select areas in the eastern and central regions with good economic foundations and outstanding cultural characteristics to establish community museums, such as Anji Ecological Museum, Fuzhou Sanfang Qixiang Community Museum, etc.
After more than 30 years of practical exploration, 50 ecological museums or community museums have been built in various parts of our country in ancient villages and ancient towns, industrial sites and urban traditional communities in ethnic minority areas and developed eastern areas.
At present, the construction of my country's ecological museums has not achieved the expected goals.
Its emergence not only did not play an ideal role in protecting and inheriting local culture, but also accelerated its changes to a certain extent.
Many ecological museums have been reduced to folk tourist villages.
The international museum community is opposed to the development of tourism in eco-museums, and they believe that tourism will have an impact on native culture.
The international development of ecological museums has not been smooth sailing.
Since the 1980s, more than 300 ecological museums have appeared around the world.
After the 1990s, nearly half of them had disappeared.
The concept of an ecological museum itself is very beautiful, but how to implement it still requires a deeper understanding.
In 2005, the Ministry of Culture proposed the concept of "cultural and ecological protection experimental zones" from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage protection.
Since 2007, it has approved 21 "national" cultural and ecological protection experimental zones "in 17 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, including southern Fujian, Huizhou, Regong, and Qiang ethnic groups." Level cultural and ecological protection experimental zones ", 146 provincial-level experimental zones have been established in various provinces, autonomous regions and cities.
On March 1, 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Measures for the Management of National Cultural and Ecological Protection Zones" to summarize the experience in the construction of experimental zones and further improve the working mechanism for the application, construction and management of national cultural and ecological protection experimental zones.
From a practical perspective, the cultural form of ecological museums is relatively single and the model is basically similar.
Suoga Miao Ecological Museum is located in Suojia Township and has jurisdiction over 12 natural villages.
Fuzhou Sanfang Qixiang Community Museum is located in the central Urban area of Fuzhou, with a protection area of 38 hectares of historical and cultural district.
The "Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone" has a larger geographical scope.
The Southern Fujian Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone includes Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Xiamen in Fujian.
The protection scope of the Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone is: the entire territory of Huangshan City in Anhui Province, Jixi County in Anhui Province, and Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province.
What is important is that the concept is not the name.
Whether it is an ecological museum, a cultural and ecological experimental reserve, or the "comprehensive pilot project for the protection and utilization of traditional villages" promoted by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, they are all essentially the same.
They both emphasize the protection of intangible cultural heritage living spaces, that is,"See people, see things, see life".
It is necessary not only to protect a single intangible cultural heritage elephant, but also to protect the traditional customs and lifestyles of residents, as well as many aspects of material heritage such as ancient village style and ancient architectural protection.
The concept is beautiful, but like the ecological museum, the construction of the cultural and ecological experimental reserve also faces many doubts: the scope is too large, the content is complex, the talent funds are not in place, the lack of specific and operable measures, etc., and the protection effect in the substantive sense has not been achieved.
The most important thing is how to grasp the balance between development and protection, inheritance and innovation.
This is a dilemma faced by all ethnic groups in the cultural changes.
It can be seen from the Convention that one of the characteristics of intangible cultural heritage is to "provide a sense of identity and continuity to communities and groups." Whether a certain cultural phenomenon is the intangible cultural heritage of a group or individual depends on whether they identify with it.
However, in our country, the protection of intangible cultural heritage is often state-led and lacks public recognition and participation, especially in ethnic minority areas.
There are currently 21 national-level cultural and ecological protection experimental zones in my country, 11 of which are in ethnic minority areas.
Although the government uses policy support, financial guarantees, etc.
to vigorously promote it, for remote ethnic villages, allowing people to live a truly difficult farming life for tourists to watch is undoubtedly a destruction of human nature.
It is difficult for a group to develop a "cultural consciousness" to protect its own traditions before solving its survival problems.
People are more eager to change their poor living conditions, so the local government and residents have enthusiastically embraced tourism without exception.
They feel that their traditional culture is outdated.
Although they still wear national costumes, they no longer enjoy the beauty of traditional costumes as before.
Although he was still dancing the folk dance, there was no passion in his heart.
Although it was wonderful, it was also contrived.
Even the sacrificial activities had become a must-perform every day, rather than being based on inner needs.
Outside the eyes of tourists, they have abandoned their traditional way of life.
Rural culture has evolved into tourists 'cultural nostalgia and cultural curiosity, and has become pseudo-folk customs.
However, is it also a pseudo-custom to require local people to adhere to cultural traditions and protect the so-called original ecology? The core and ultimate purpose of the concept of "holistic protection" is to protect the cultural traditions of specific groups.
However, if the protection of traditional culture deviates from the wishes of the inheritance group and is promoted solely by the wishes and behaviors of others, it will only become a landscape for mainstream culture to watch, stare at and explore, and therefore it is unsustainable.
Many times, local residents are inwardly rejecting and resisting this kind of protective behavior forcibly imposed by the outside world.
The concept of the European Ecological Museum was proposed during the period of transition from industrial civilization to post-industrial civilization.
It was a culturally conscious behavior arising in the face of energy crisis and ecological pressure.
But in my country, even in the economically developed eastern regions, the protection process is not voluntary.
Affected by the commercial economy, economically developed regions have become more concerned about money and their desire to develop their economies has become more urgent.
In fact, in the tide of global cultural integration, no culture can maintain its original ecology.
Whether it is an ecological museum or a cultural and ecological experimental reserve, the concept of overall protection is not to seal it unchanged, but to allow cultural traditions to be transformed, innovated and passed on in the contemporary cultural environment.
This kind of transformation and inheritance must come from the local people, including the government, consciously and voluntarily, so that the inheritance of traditional culture can shift from a state of freedom and loss to cultural consciousness, so as to achieve autonomy in cultural transformation and cultural development.
Only in this way can the construction of cultural ecological protection experimental zones achieve sustainable development.
Excellent traditional culture is the root and soul of our country and nation, and is also a unique strategic resource to promote national rejuvenation.
As early as the dawn of modern tourism more than 100 years ago, the protection of historical heritage and the development of tourism promoted each other.
The two can fully achieve mutually beneficial coexistence under the guidance of the concept of sustainable development.
The construction of cultural ecological reserves and ecological museums is not perfect.
It only provides a new perspective for taking into account inheritance and development in cultural changes.
We cannot ask indigenous people in protected areas to give up resource development and industrial development.
Perhaps only in this way can their traditional culture be recognized, valued and spread by more people.
In the contemporary era of cultural globalization and homogenization, it still becomes a distinctive symbol of their cultural identity.
Only then can we say that cultural diversity and human creativity have been protected.
The commercial entertainment activities carried out in the name of "folk customs" or "cultural heritage" in the Cultural and Ecological Protection Experimental Zone seem to mean the destruction of traditional cultural ecology.
In fact, there are indeed many cases that prove this destruction, but the protection and development of cultural diversity are inherently complex); on the other hand, there are also real traditions in pseudo-folk customs.
Museum expert Mark Moore vividly expressed the function of the ecological museum with a "mirror".
Local people can see themselves in this mirror, recognize and accept themselves.
That is true.
In the process of commercialization, local people have rediscovered the value of their traditional culture, which may generate cultural identity and activate their love and confidence in their own culture.
This has become an opportunity for them to rediscover their local self and seek new identity from the mirror image.
The local cultural tradition has also been reborn through adjustment in the new cultural and ecological environment.
The balance of cultural ecology is dynamic.
Tradition is disappearing, but tradition is also being generated.
Every traditional culture has the ability to protect and repair itself.
The process of cultural development and inheritance includes the process of constantly breaking old balances and establishing new balances.
Various creative innovations in inheritance practice, such as commercial performances of some heritage projects, can enhance the influence of tradition and accelerate its spread to a certain extent.
As long as it does not distort the cultural connotation of the heritage or violate the will of the holder, tolerance and encouragement must be given.
Whether innovation can become a tradition in the future must be tested by practice.
Time itself contains possibilities.
For example, there is a theater dedicated to cross-talk in Shichahai District, a famous tourist attraction in Beijing.
It is a newly built entertainment venue that imitates traditional styles at tourist attractions.
It looks no different from all "pseudo-folk" tourism projects that cater to tourists.
In essence, it contains real traditional culture, spreading the folk culture of old Beijing to locals and outsiders, attracting sightseeing tourists, and also gathering residents who maintain or yearn for traditional culture.
Reconstruct an ecological space of Beijing folk culture.
Even pseudo-folk customs also imply certain elements of traditional folk culture, and may attract real inheritors of folk culture to intervene and achieve inheritance in the bustling cultural market.
4.
Conclusion
How to grasp the relationship between development and protection, inheritance and innovation is a cliché topic, but it is difficult to generalize.
Where are the nodes and scales of innovation? To what extent is the use of machinery in traditional skills tolerated? There is a famous philosophical thought experiment called the "Ship of Theseus".
Every part of a ship has been updated over time-so, is the completely updated ship still the original "Ship of Theseus"? On this issue, the more recognized conclusion and analysis is as follows: As long as the key factors before and after its update are "identical", and this update has "spatio-temporal continuity", then it can be determined that "I am still me." This issue can be applied to various fields.
For the recording and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, we must follow nature and innovate with determination.
It is worth encouraging for intangible cultural heritage to follow the trend and achieve self-development.
On the one hand, we must uphold tradition and never forget our original aspirations, but we must also forge ahead.
Cultural globalization and the rapid development of communication technologies such as the Internet have intensified the global coverage of Western mainstream culture, and national traditional culture is facing unprecedented impacts.
As an important part of China's excellent traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage can only attract young people and global consumers through creative transformation and innovative development, and transform it into a form and content that the world can understand, and truly integrate into the times and enter life.
Only in this way can the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage be truly realized.
(This article was published in "Folklore Research", No.
6, 2019.
The annotations are omitted.
See the original issue for details)