Intangible cultural heritage to be listed
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-11-17 08:43

China is building up its own list of intangible cultural heritage to protect ethnic minorities' languages, art, music, dance and religion.

"As we continue to apply to UNESCO for recognition of China's diverse cultural treasures... we should establish China's own list," said Zhou Heping, vice-minister of culture, at a three-day International Symposium on Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Arts, the symposium, which started yesterday in Beijing, has attracted more than 150 participants from over 20 countries including the South Korea, Japan, Viet Nam, France, Germany, Austria and the United States.

High on the agenda was preser-vation and policies that would safeguard this heritage in a scientific, comprehensive and systematic way.

"The intangible cultural heritage of different countries and different ethnic groups is the cultural treasure of humanity," said Wang Wenzhang, president of the Chinese Academy of Arts.

In 2002, the academy launched a project to identify and preserve intangible cultural heritage, which brought local individual projects into the fold of a national system.

In February 2003, a national centre was set up in Beijing.

To date, UNESCO has listed China's kunqu opera and guqin as "master pieces of oral and intangible cultural heritage."

In addition, a total of 39 different cultural genres such as the Uygur 12 Muqum, nanyin, Tibetan drama and some traditional folk crafts have been listed by China's own preservation centre, said Li Ke, deputy director of the centre.

The centre will also give regular training courses on intangible culture preservation.

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