Wang Ning recommended "Ten Lectures on the Protection of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage"

Ten Lectures on the Protection of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Wang Ning is a senior professor at Beijing Normal University

This book is a comprehensive introduction to China's intangible cultural heritage, which involves the designation and naming, extension and connotation of "intangible cultural heritage" (hereinafter referred to as "intangible cultural heritage"), analyzes its characteristics and value, summarizes the existing classification of China's intangible cultural heritage, and sorts out the types and entities of China's representative works declared over the past 20 years, which can be called an encyclopedia of knowledge of China's intangible cultural heritage. In this book, the author introduces the declaration and evaluation of intangible cultural heritage, the exploration of protection methods, the working mechanism and legal mechanism of protection, and also touches on the policy and implementation of intangible cultural heritage, and involves various working principles and facts, so this book can also be regarded as a work manual for intangible cultural heritage protection. Finally, this book puts forward the author's thoughts on the existing problems and solutions of China's intangible cultural heritage protection, and these two lectures are sincere exchanges between the author and his working partners and interested readers with his own experience accumulated over the years.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the first "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" were published. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was promulgated in 2003. The mainland's intangible cultural heritage protection work began here, and it will only be 22 years until 2023. As far as the long river of history is concerned, 20 years have been in the blink of an eye, and everything is just in front of you. The author of this book, Ma Shengde, has been following this work for more than 20 years. The promulgation of the United Nations Convention caused a shock in China, and in the face of this unfamiliar name and novelty, the academic and theoretical interpretation of the Convention was undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Arts. To this end, he accumulated realistic texts of various international and domestic regulations and principles at that time, and witnessed the whole process of naming, improving and developing all the names. For the next 10 years, he worked at the level of the formulation and implementation of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding policies. After leaving the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage, he visited the intangible cultural heritage site as an expert to grasp the facts, understand the details, and promote development...... In addition, he himself is not only a dancer of folk dance, a scholar of dance culture research in Northwest China, but also friends with many representatives of intangible cultural heritage. Such an author should be the most suitable writer for this book, which combines an encyclopedia of knowledge and a workbook.

As a completely layman, I have no reason to say anything about the contents of such a highly specialized book. Everything I want to say is off topic.

I used to wonder what the question of intangible cultural heritage means for China. The Xinhai Revolution overthrew the imperial system, and China needed a new culture to adapt to the development of the new democratic system and the education needs of the people. The May Fourth New Culture Movement first proposed "popular culture", but where exactly is this culture? People's scholars like Mr. Zhong Jingwen have always insisted that the combination of Chinese popular culture and upper-class culture is the whole traditional culture. They believe that Chinese culture without mass culture cannot be comprehensive, or even authentic. However, in ancient China, almost all the people's creations could only be preserved by the promotion and admiration of power, that is, the upper culture. The oral creation of the people, once formed into writing, is mixed with atrophy, compromise, flattery, and depression in a healthy and positive progress, and these dross imposed on the people have become the hallmark of the "culture at the bottom". For thousands of years, the kind people who have been oppressed by poverty and isolation, who have survived and resisted death, worked hard to survive, have self-respect and self-love, and are optimistic and positive have contributed to mankind, which is far from forming a deep understanding. What kind of distorted image of our people is when education is completely unable to cover their heads, when ideas cannot be turned into texts at all, and when the hands that transform the world can only reach out to the sky in a begging way? It was only after the international issue of intangible cultural heritage protection was raised that we paid attention to the people's creativity for the first time. From the inheritors of those masterpieces, we have directly seen the images that we have never seen, comprehended the wisdom that has not been rendered but has its own halo, and experienced the creations that transcend the simplicity of life and express the infinite richness of culture. In the past 22 years, the protection of intangible cultural heritage has been carried out in the real creator group. Over the years, let us return the people's creations to the people, and no longer take their place to enjoy the glory.

The protection of intangible cultural heritage is the continuation and development of the concept of "people" in the May Fourth New Culture Movement, the promotion of the "democratic" spirit advocated by the Party and the state, and the manifestation of the cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation. Mason's book tells us all this, and it reveals a brilliance that the people have given to it that we may not really be aware of.

November 10, 2023

Editor's Choice

This book is like a key that leads readers to open the door to China's intangible cultural heritage. The book summarizes the exploration and practical experience of China's intangible cultural heritage protection over the past 20 years, further clarifies the basic characteristics, connotation and extension of intangible cultural heritage, deeply discusses the core concepts of intangible cultural heritage protection and the basic laws of intangible cultural heritage inheritance and development, and gives vivid and rich examples, comprehensively showing the work ideas and related thinking of China's intangible cultural heritage protection.

Introduction

This book is the result of the author's theoretical research on the practice of intangible cultural heritage protection in China for more than 20 years. The book is an important work for understanding the development process of China's intangible cultural heritage protection, which comprehensively introduces China's rich and unique intangible cultural heritage resources, expounds China's practice of intangible cultural heritage protection, and systematically summarizes China's experience in intangible cultural heritage protection.

About the Author

Ma Shengde (1959-), a native of Xunhua County, Qinghai. He used to be the deputy director and inspector of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, a member of the National Expert Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the vice president of the Chinese Minority Dance Society. He is currently the director of the Expert Committee of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition and Research Center, the deputy director and researcher of the Expert Steering Committee for the Protection and Development of Chinese Traditional Villages, and the director of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation. He is a member of the Academic Committee of the "Culture and Tourism Research Base" of Minzu University of China, and a member of the Academic Committee of the Ethnic Dance Research Base of Beijing Dance Academy. Director and Distinguished Professor of Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center of Nantong University. He has long been engaged in the management and research of the protection and research of Chinese ethnic minority dances, religious dances and intangible cultural heritage. He has published monographs such as "Research on the Marriage Customs and Dance of Ethnic Groups Believing in Islam in Northwest China", "Investigation and Research on Religious Sacrifice Dance in Qinghai", and "Chinese Folk Dance". He has published more than 100 papers such as "Ritual and Dance" and "Several Issues to be Concerned in the Construction of Cultural and Ecological Reserves".

Table of Contents

Preface / Wang Ning

preface

Lecture 1: What is intangible cultural heritage?

Section 1: Proposal of the Concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 2: Interpretation of the Concept and Definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Lecture 2: Characteristics of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 1 Liveness

Section 2 Rheology

Section 3: Sharing

Lecture 3: The Value of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 1 Intangible cultural heritage is the common need of mankind for peace-loving

Section 2 Intangible cultural heritage is a creative product of human social practice activities

Section 3: The historical, literary, artistic, and scientific value of intangible cultural heritage

Section 4: The Cultural Identity Value of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 5 Intangible cultural heritage is an important resource for sustainable development

Lecture 4: Classification of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 1 The five categories of the Convention and the six categories of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law

Section 2: Ten categories at the practical level

Lecture 5 20 Years of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection (1): Assessment and Declaration

Section 1 Major achievements of the past few years

Section 2 Two important documents of the State Council on the protection of intangible cultural heritage

Lecture 6 20 Years of Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding (II): Exploration of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Methods

Section 1: Rescue Protection

Section 2: Productive Protections

Lecture 7: 20 Years of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection (II): Exploration of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Methods

Section 1: Holistic Protections

Section 2: Legislative Protections

Lecture 8: 20 Years of Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding (3): Multiple Practices in Parallel

Section 1: The basic establishment of working bodies and teams

Section 2: Establish relevant important mechanisms

Section 3: Traditional festivals are included in the national statutory holiday system, and international exchanges and cooperation are actively carried out

Section 4: The Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ethnic Minorities

Lecture 9 Main Problems Facing the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 1 Seven factors that cause intangible cultural heritage items to become endangered

Section II Other major problems that currently exist

Section 3: Discussion on the Concept of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

Lecture 10 Reflections on the current countermeasures for the protection of intangible cultural heritage

Section 1: Raising a Correct Understanding of the Concept of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage

Section 2: Exploration of Measures for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage

epilogue

postscript

bibliography

appendix

People's Republic of China the Intangible Cultural Heritage Act

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Ethical Principles for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

China has been inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (INSC).

List of National Demonstration Bases for the Productive Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage

UNESCO's List of Jointly Nominated Properties