【Hot Spot Observation】
Author: Yang Hong (Professor, Communication University of China and Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Communication Research Center)
As an important part of China's excellent traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage is not only an important resource for tourism, but also enriches the cultural connotation of tourism. As a new way of life, tourism provides more practice and application scenarios for intangible cultural heritage, and stimulates the vitality and vitality of intangible cultural heritage. In recent years, the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism has gradually become a trend. When ancient intangible cultural heritage meets beautiful scenery, what kind of sparks will be created? How can intangible cultural heritage and tourism be integrated and developed on a broader scale, at a deeper level and at a higher level?
Photo by shadow puppet performance Han Yeting / Guangming Pictures
Traditional handicrafts have become a popular tourist product
Tasting special foods and buying local specialties are important parts of mass tourism consumption. In this process, more and more tourists use the "golden signboard" of intangible cultural heritage to judge whether the goods sold in the store are unique to the local area and whether the craftsmanship is authentic. Behind this phenomenon is the public's recognition and recognition of the regional and unique characteristics of intangible cultural heritage. Many intangible cultural heritage products have materials, craftsmanship, appearance and cultural connotations that are "unique to the place and different from others". Therefore, intangible cultural heritage handicrafts and local specialty foods have become characteristic tourism commodities that "there is no shop in this village".
The development of intangible cultural heritage tourism products can achieve the dual role of enhancing tourism experience and promoting local culture. However, in recent years, unscrupulous merchants have made and sold fake intangible cultural heritage handicrafts under the banner of intangible cultural heritage in some places, so it is urgent to strengthen the supervision of relevant intangible cultural heritage signage. In 2021, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province issued a local standard "Intangible Cultural Heritage Image Store Management Specification", which provides a unified logo for local stores selling intangible cultural heritage goods through standardized management and branded packaging of intangible cultural heritage stores, which to a certain extent protects intangible cultural heritage goods and brands from infringement in market-oriented operations.
Children are experiencing paper engraving. Photo by Han Yeting/Guangming Pictures
It is worth noting that the experience of intangible cultural heritage items such as traditional handicraft production has also become an emerging product in the tourism market. The increasing number of scenic spots and scenic spots with the main content of watching and experiencing traditional handicrafts has become a popular format for local tourism, and it has also become an important way for intangible cultural heritage workshops and other places to expand their tourism and sightseeing functions. Some intangible cultural heritage protection units with basic conditions for traditional arts, traditional Chinese medicine, and arts and crafts have begun to upgrade production workshops and production sites to intangible cultural heritage-themed "sightseeing factories" with the functions of production, sightseeing experience, and display and sale. This type of tourist attractions links the productive protection of intangible cultural heritage with the experience economy, transforms the unique technological processes, handmade scenes, and characteristic production styles of intangible cultural heritage into tourism elements of scenic spots and scenic spots, attracts target groups with well-known time-honored brands and well-known local characteristic products, and realizes the organic integration of cultural dissemination and product marketing through "tourism factories".
Integrating the relevant knowledge of traditional handicrafts and the aesthetic concepts contained in them into the whole process of tourism experience is the core idea of some traditional handicraft tourism product development. For example, in May 2022, Zheng Finn, the provincial inheritor of native cloth textile skills in Zhejiang, opened a rural tourism complex called "Chuanshuo Museum" in Xikou Village, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, which not only displays the history of spinning, handicraft skills and local culture, but also integrates various functions such as citizen leisure, tourist visits, research and education, and handicraft activation. The core elements of rural tourism - homestays, kitchens, leisure experience projects, etc. are all available, and its characteristics are that from architectural decoration, home furnishings to daily use, food supply, etc., are all from rural handicrafts, reflecting the integration with intangible cultural heritage.
Traditional performing arts are integrated into the contemporary tourism scene
There are representative traditional performing arts such as folk music, folk songs, dance acrobatics, and opera arts, most of which belong to the category of intangible cultural heritage. In recent years, these local performances have become an important project to attract popularity in tourist attractions (spots), and an important carrier for tourists to feel local customs and appreciate the diverse cultures of various places.
Shandong Yicheng cultural and art volunteers performed the intangible cultural heritage project "Dragon Drum" to help the development of rural cultural tourism. Photo by Sun Hui/Guangming Pictures
For example, the Bashan Grand Canyon Scenic Area in Dazhou City, Sichuan Province, organically integrates the national intangible cultural heritage items Tujia grass gong and drum, Tujia waving hand dance, Baren money stick dance, Tujia mountain song, etc. into all parts of the scenic spot, on the one hand, allowing tourists to get a tourism experience with rich ethnic folk customs and a sense of participation, on the other hand, these intangible cultural heritage items have changed from only a few inheritors to a large number of local residents, and the inheritance status of related intangible cultural heritage items is getting better and better. As local resident Wan Daiwei said: "The development of the Bashan Grand Canyon from a mountain area to a scenic spot, the biggest change is cultural life." Everyone put on Pakistani costumes, sang Bashan songs, and danced Pakistani dances, which is a good inheritance of Pakistani culture. ”
Performing arts and oral traditions are important types of intangible cultural heritage, and they are also one of the core cultural resources for the development of tourism in various places. In the process of transforming cultural resources into tourism products and services, it is inevitable that appropriate adaptation and re-creation are carried out based on the tourist experience. In the past, many scholars have expressed many concerns about the integration of intangible cultural heritage performances into tourism, believing that it is difficult to balance the authenticity of intangible cultural heritage content with tourists' sense of experience, and they are also worried that it will distort the cultural core of intangible cultural heritage, and that simplified tourism performances will replace the original inheritance style of the community. In fact, a large number of cases at home and abroad show that while mastering the knowledge of traditional performing arts, local communities can also adapt to the changing social and economic environment, and take into account the community inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and tourism performances in a differentiated development way.
Cultural experience products enrich the connotation of cultural tourism consumption
The tourism needs of contemporary people are undergoing a process of continuous subdivision, and sub-products such as in-depth cultural experience tours, study tours, agricultural tourism, eco-tourism, and gastronomic tourism are in the ascendant, and the unique cultural practices and knowledge systems of some places have become the core resources supporting tourism development in specific regions. For example, the 24 solar terms are time knowledge systems and cultural practices created by Chinese and passed down to the present day, supporting the interaction between humans and nature for generations. In recent years, the 24 solar terms themed leisure experience and study tourism have become popular tourism products in many places.
The author once saw such a scene in the "Between Ten Mu" homestay courtyard in Geyang Village, Wencheng County, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province: children gathered around a large cauldron, making mustard rice under the explanation of the experience instructor, and experiencing the solar term culture of "rain to a hundred grains". Opened in 2016, this homestay sells solar terms, traditional crafts and agricultural experience, and holds more than 150 intangible cultural heritage experience activities every year, receiving more than 10,000 intangible cultural heritage study experiencers, and was recently rated as an intangible cultural heritage theme homestay in Zhejiang Province. Intangible Cultural Heritage B&B is just one type of intangible cultural heritage experience base in Wenzhou. Intangible Cultural Heritage Towns, Intangible Cultural Heritage Blocks, Intangible Cultural Heritage Colleges, Intangible Cultural Heritage Handicraft Workshops... Different types of intangible cultural heritage experience bases now cover all links of Wenzhou's tourism industry chain, turning tourists' tourism activities into cultural experiences.
In the process of rural revitalization, more and more rural intangible cultural heritage inheritors and craftsmen have obtained employment opportunities and considerable benefits through tourism, and effectively fed back the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Among the excellent cases of integrated development of intangible cultural heritage and tourism that have emerged in recent years, there are many cases of intangible cultural heritage lighting up the road to rural revitalization. For example, Daoming Bamboo Art Village in Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province is a typical representative of traditional handicrafts driving rural revitalization. The village organically integrates the resource endowment of the national intangible cultural heritage representative project Daoming Bamboo Weaving into rural houses, landscapes and scenic spots, making the local rural tourism characteristics distinctive and forming differentiated advantages. In the interaction between foreign tourists, makers and local communities, the attractiveness of TD Bamboo Art Village has been greatly enhanced, its popularity has increased, its industry has increased, the villagers have become rich, and the level of rural civilization has been significantly improved.
In short, the fundamental purpose of promoting the integrated development of intangible cultural heritage and tourism is to systematically protect intangible cultural heritage, promote the high-quality development of tourism, and better meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the people. In the process of promoting the integrated development of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, we should also pay attention to several issues. The local tourism space should be based on the local intangible cultural heritage, and the introduction of intangible cultural heritage items from other regions should be suitable for the local cultural ecology, and should be accepted and recognized by the local people and tourists, so as to avoid rigid copying, simple transplantation and homogeneous development. It is necessary to provide convenient conditions for inheritors to carry out inheritance practices and tourism services in tourism spaces, and encourage inheritors to participate in tourism management.
In addition, two-way training for intangible cultural heritage practitioners and tourism practitioners should be strengthened. It is necessary to include tourism-related business content in the scope of intangible cultural heritage protection training, help inheritors understand the characteristics, policies and regulations, operation mode, and tourist needs of the tourism industry, improve their awareness and ability to inherit and disseminate intangible cultural heritage, and enhance inheritors' understanding of the significance of the intangible cultural heritage value they hold. It is also necessary to include the content of intangible cultural heritage in the scope of training in the tourism industry, help tour guides, docents, tourism developers, etc. understand the laws and regulations, knowledge connotation and protection concepts related to intangible cultural heritage, improve the awareness and ability of rational use and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage in tourism, and guide tourism practitioners and tourists to appreciate, respect, identify and disseminate intangible cultural heritage.
Guang Ming Daily(Version 13, 03/01/2023)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily