Archive/Base/Network: A threefold solution for safeguarding ethnic minorities' oral heritage in China

Abstract

Based upon domestic practices and international experiences to safeguarding oral and intangible cultural heritage, the present threefold solution currently underway focuses on the interaction assigned to three closely related units that have been implemented by the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), namely: (1) access to the resource of China Ethnic Literature Archives, (2) institutional construction of Oral Tradition Field Study Bases, and (3) the information-sharing platform of China Ethnic Literature Network. Concentrating on the following key issues, the threefold project deals with how and why the IEL has given its highest priority in recent years to information resource management and processing capabilities: (1) the relation between safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and revitalizing oral tradition, (2) China Ethnic Literature Archives: resources integration and digital community , (3) The oral Tradition Field Study Bases: resource development and informational increasing resolution, (4) China Ethnic Literature Network: resource characterized and information sharing, and (5) A working model of Archive/Base/Network: conceptualizing digital community. Accordingly, the solution primarily formulates developing strategies for promoting the three parallel projects regarding multiple resource maximization and information sharing in light of folkloristic practices and situated field studies, and then explores the plural operation and potential capacity for making powerful use of information technology: (1) in advancing data acquisition/accumulation for theoretic researches of ethnic oral traditions, (2) in maintaining cultural diversity of minority ethnic groups in China, and (3) in safeguarding oral and intangible cultural heri