The Chinese government has established a national
"Cultural Heritage Day" to be celebrated annually on the second Saturday of
June, Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng said on May 26, 2006.
Sun said the first "Cultural Heritage Day" would fall on June 10, with the
theme "Protecting cultural heritage and safeguarding the spiritual homeland".
"The celebration will include a series of performances and exhibitions," Sun
said. It would feature an exhibition of ancient Chinese books and a selection of
the best folk art.
The State Administration of Culture Heritage would undertake a nationwide
review of cultural heritage protection work, while the National Library and
Academy of Social Sciences would host seminars and forums and offer advice to
the public on cultural heritage.
Sun called on museums, memorial halls and relic sites at all levels to open
free to public on the first "Cultural Heritage Day". He said Chinese legislation
included more than 30 laws and regulations on cultural heritage protection in
which the government had invested 7.89 billion yuan (900 million U.S. dollars)
over the last five years. People from all walks of life had come to realize its
importance.
China has 2,351 historic sites and 518 articles of intangible cultural
heritage. Nearly 400,000 fixed relics have been registered on the mainland and
another 20 million movable relics in museums.
Sun noted that China holds four of the 19 "masterpieces" of Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity listed by the United Nations Education, Science
and Culture Organization (UNESCO). They are the 500-year-old Kunqu Opera, known
for its graceful movements and poetic lyrics; the 3,000-year-old guqin
seven-string zither; the Twelve Mukams, a 12-part suite of ancient Uygur
music;and the Pastoral Song sung by a Mongolian ethnic group.
On June 2nd, the Chinese State Council announced that the Spring Festival,
Peking Opera, acupuncture, The Legend of Madame White Snake and Shaolin Kungfu
would be included in the country's first intangible cultural heritage list.
The list contains 518 items in 10 categories, including folk literature, folk
music and dance, traditional opera, ballad singing, cross-talk, acrobatics ,
folk fine arts, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine and folk customs,
the State Council announced on its website on Friday.
The 518 items were selected by a jury organized by the
Ministry of Culture and the Academy of Arts of China (AAC) from more than 1,300
traditions across the country. However, experts say the protection of heritage
in China is a race against time. "Intangible cultural heritage in China is
facing a rigorous challenge in its battle against urbanization and
globalization," said Tian Qing, a member of the jury and director of the
Intangible Culture Heritage Research Center under the AAC.
