Protection and development of local drama Regulations on the protection of traditional local drama in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, were promulgated

To the full hair cover news reporter Xie Jie

On the morning of December 29, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, held a press conference on the Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Local Dramas in Nanchong City. The cover news reporter learned that after being adopted by the 46th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 6th People's Congress of Nanchong City and reported to the 31st meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th People's Congress of Sichuan Province, the Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Local Dramas in Nanchong City (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") were officially promulgated and implemented from January 1, 2022, which marks a new level in the protection of traditional local dramas in Nanchong City.

It is understood that the "Regulations" are the first municipal traditional drama protection regulations promulgated by Sichuan Province.

The Regulations consist of 5 chapters and 38 articles, mainly including general provisions, protection and inheritance, development and dissemination, legal liability, and supplementary provisions. In terms of protection and inheritance, the Regulations clearly require all localities to establish a protection list, protect the content, compile a protection plan, establish a database of traditional local drama resources and an information sharing and exchange network platform, protect the physical materials related to traditional drama, the inheritance obligations of relevant local theaters (troupes, classes), and the cultivation of inheritance talents; in terms of development and dissemination, the Regulations clearly stipulate the construction of traditional local theater work teams, the establishment of special funds for the development of traditional local theaters, infrastructure construction, script creation support, etc. In terms of legal liability, the Regulations clearly stipulate the legal responsibility for encroaching on and destroying the objects, materials, buildings (structures) and places of traditional local drama, and the legal responsibility for the staff of relevant departments for not performing their duties.

As an important town in northern Sichuan and a provincial-level historical and cultural city, Nanchong has a very rich cultural heritage. At the municipal level, there are still four state-owned professional literary and art theater troupes and many folk art groups such as the Sichuan Provincial Puppet Theater, the Nanchong Song and Dance Theater, the Nanchong City Chuan Opera Troupe (Nanchong City Chuanbei And other troupes), and the Nanchong City Acrobatic Troupe. There are many types of local dramas in the city, including more than 10 local dramas listed in the national, provincial and municipal intangible cultural heritage lists, and the Langzhong Wang Shadow Puppet and the Southern MaWang Shadow Puppet have been successfully selected into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations.

In particular, nanchong local dramas represented by the puppets of Northern Sichuan, Lantern Operas of Northern Sichuan, shadow puppets of Northern Sichuan, etc. are well-known at home and abroad for their remarkable local characteristics and unique inheritance skills of Northern Sichuan, and have become the symbols of Nanchong's excellent traditional local culture. The Puppets of Chuanbei University have appeared in the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea and the 2021 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and have visited more than 40 countries and regions; the Chuanbei Lantern Opera has been performed in Zhongnanhai, And the program has participated in the former Ministry of Culture Opera Gala many times and broadcast on the CCTV Xiqu Channel for many times. As a private theater troupe, the Chuanbei Shadow Puppet Art Troupe (Wang Shadow Puppet) insists on performing for the people all year round, performing about 800 times a year in normal years.

However, the survival and development of traditional local dramas in Nanchong are also faced with the aging of the performers on stage by professional theater groups, insufficient innovation in repertoire, and weak market vitality; the shortage of funds and no performance venues for grass-roots and private local theater troupes; and the emergence of some traditional dramas with local characteristics that are spread in the folk have no inheritors and are on the verge of disappearing, and it is urgent to formulate a local regulation that is "standing and operable" to protect it.

Under the continuous efforts of the cultural administrative department of Nanchong City, in January 2021, the Standing Committee of the Nanchong Municipal People's Congress included the drafting of the Regulations in the annual legislative task, and promptly set up a leading group for drafting work, through in-depth research, and organized local theaters (groups, classes), representative inheritors, experts, and scholars to hold discussions and discussions on many occasions, and strived to grasp the first-hand materials, so as to ensure that the legislation is based and easy to implement.

After the first draft of the "Regulations" came out, the Nanchong Municipal People's Congress organized and held legislative discussion meetings attended by experts and professors from the Law School of Sichuan University, the Law School of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, and other units on many occasions, repeatedly revised and improved them, and finally promulgated and implemented them.

The relevant person in charge of the Nanchong Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism said that the promulgation and implementation of the "Regulations" not only raised the protection of traditional local dramas in Nanchong to the height of the legal system, but also promoted the further innovative development of Nanchong culture represented by traditional local dramas.