Heritage safeguarding as a method: ethnic cultural reconstruction in China

This article reviews the different factors which generated international standard setting for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, examines the conceptual evolution of this notion, and traces the various steps of negotiations leading to the adoption of the Convention in 2003. The establishment of the first normative instrument was the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore (1989). Much attention had been given to the question of Intellectual Property Rights, which at the end was left aside for a more global approach. In 1997, the World Forum on the Protection of Folklore, organized by UNESCO and WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization), concluded that the copyright regime was not adequate for ensuring protection, but that a new international agreement was needed. The 1992 UNESCO 'Intangible Cultural Heritage' programme consolidated by the UNESCO/Japan Fund-in-Trust, the creation of a world list of Living Human Treasures in 1993, the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and the subsequent setting-up of the United Nations decade for indigenous and minority people (1995-2004) generated a number of significant events in favour of the safeguarding of intangible heritage and made urgent the need for a new normative instrument. The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was conceived in 1997 as a means to fill the gap in the concept of 'world heritage', which refers mainly to the 'Northern' natural and tangible cultural heritage. The Assessment of the 1989 Recommendation played a catalytic role for the successful adoption of the 2003 Convention, in which a more holistic conception of 'heritage' prevailed, with a predominant role given to artists, practitioners and communities deserving of respect and motivation. This Convention marks a fundamental ethical positioning.

Cultural heritage is not limited to material manifestations; indeed it also includes intangible, living and fragile expressions, such as oral traditions, performing arts, festive events, or the knowledge and skills necessary to produce traditional crafts. This essay focuses on the issue of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, especially in the framework of the French and Italian national cultural policies. In particular, it begins by following the evolution of the concept of heritage towards intangible cultural heritage and examining the principal historical events, programs and debates that in 2003 led to the adoption of a new international legal instrument: the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Then, considering the main changes of today's global economy, this study underlines the importance of intangible heritage from an economic, cultural and social perspective. Finally, the article seeks to examine different ways to implement the 2003 Convention at the national level. Traditional models of protection, valorization, and safeguarding need to be rethought on the basis of the specific characteristics of intangible heritage and of the needs of individuals, groups and communities that create, maintain and pass cultural heritage onto future generations. Two case studies, the French model and the Italian one, will be illustrated to identify the main measures necessary to implement an effective policy for the safeguarding of this fragile heritage.

Stresses the value of intangible cultural heritage as it embodies the identities of people. On that point, the author expresses that heritage is to nations what the soul is to human beings. This exceptional and fragile cultural diversity deserves to be protected against the dangers of globalization. The new international, standardized instrument, using the 1972 Convention as a model, was intended to ensure that intangible heritage retains its vitality and flexibility, somewhere between tradition and innovation. In that spirit, the 2003 Convention was created. Its founding basis is deemed realistic and capable of reconciling contradictory demands. Furthermore, the safeguarding of intangible heritage will contribute to 'cultural sustainability', which is an essential element for the sustainable development of humanity and therefore an indication of responsibility towards its preservation for future generations.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) strengthens community identity and represents a resource for sustainable community development. The current extensive access to the Internet has facilitated the digitization of communication, including ICH. The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of both digitizing ICH and digital communication about ICH for local development. The results of a longitudinal research study on local ICH resources available on the official websites of Făgăraș Land administrative territorial units (ATUs) before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, together with the results of a content analysis on ICH on the social media accounts of the same ATUs, indicate the digitization of ICH as a sustainable local development resource whose potential can be better exploited. In Făgăraș Land there are also successful initiatives in the fields of both ICH digitization and digital communication about ICH local resources. The Museum of Canvases and Stories in Mândra ATU and the use of social media for communication about ICH in the case of Drăguș ATU are related to such initiatives and are presented as case studies in this article, highlighting the potential of ICH as a resource for sustainable community development in Făgăraș Land.

This paper reveals the contemporary Chinese state’s active role in shaping the country’s religion-related intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding, through a systematic review of China’s official inventories of national representative ICH projects and extensive investigations of relevant local practices and initiatives. Although China is ruled by a political party officially embracing an atheist ideology, various elements of the contemporary Chinese state have been proactively involved in safeguarding religion-related ICH. The Chinese state’s involvement in de facto religion-related ICH safeguarding predates its adoption of explicit ICH safeguarding narratives. Still, the Chinese state’s practices and initiatives in safeguarding religion-related ICH flourished after ratifying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004. Since then, China’s central government has established a nationwide framework to recognise representative ICH items, including religion-related ones. Beyond Beijing, various local state agencies have also developed noticeable enthusiasm for supporting the safeguarding of religion-related ICH. In addition to engaging directly with ICH safeguarding, the contemporary Chinese state has also shaped China’s religion-related ICH by working closely with some academics and religious groups.

In October 2003, 28 cultural expressions from around the world were proclaimed Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, complementing the adoption of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. This proclamation has been part of the broader remit of the international organisation to protect the world’s cultural diversity from modernity and globalisation. Inherent in this is an underlying notion of cultural authenticity, implying that certain expressions, which are considered to be endangered and therefore in need of institutional protection, constitute ‘original’ and ‘pure’ manifestations of cultural identity. Taking forward debates on the safeguarding of intangible heritage, this paper examines cultural authenticity in the context of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, the principal cultural organisation, museum and research institution of the Melanesian archipelago. The proclamation of the practice of sandroing (sand drawing) as a masterpiece of intangible heritage, and other heritage interventions taking place in Vanuatu and recorded during fieldwork in 2007, provide an interesting perspective for examining how global cultural initiatives are negotiated by local constituencies. Here, heritage preservation is coupled with calls for development, which invites new ways for thinking about authenticity not according to predefined criteria, but with respect to local understandings.

The United Kingdom (UK) has not adopted the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage (the 2003 Convention). It has been argued that this is because the UK government does not fully comprehend intangible cultural heritage (ICH). However, this article suggests that the UK government does in fact understand ICH, and that several historic and current UK laws and policies protect aspects of ICH. The article re-examines ICH, and reveals that ICH includes two key elements: the discernment of heritage and the embodiment of heritage. The discernment of heritage refers to how cultures identify which spaces, objects and artefacts are the correct and meaningful referent for the expression of ICH. The embodiment of heritage refers to activities which express ICH. Understanding ICH in this way clarifies that heritage-related laws in the UK have been focussed on protecting the discernment of heritage, and not on protecting specific embodiments of heritage. The divergence of heritage-related laws and policies between England and Wales since Devolution is then examined, revealing a relationship between nationalism and the embodiment of heritage. It is argued that the UK government’s understanding of this relationship better explains the UK’s hesitation in adopting the 2003 Convention than poor comprehension.

Privatisation of the Production of Public Space

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is deeply embedded in everyday social life, yet its officially recognized spatial distribution reflects both the independent influences of cultural traditions, development trajectories, and governance practices, and the complex interactions among them. Focusing on 494 national-level ICH items across ten categories in Jiangsu(J), Zhejiang(Z), and Shanghai(H), this study adopts a social-geographical perspective to examine both the spatio-temporal evolution and the driving mechanisms of ICH recognition in one of China’s most developed regions. After rigorous verification of point-based ICH locations, we combine kernel density estimation and the average nearest neighbor index to trace changes across five batches of national designation, and then employ the univariate and interaction detectors of the Geodetector model to assess the effects of 28 natural, socioeconomic, and cultural-institutional variables. The results show, first, that ICH exhibits significant clustering along river corridors and historical cultural belts, with a persistent high-density core in the Shanghai–southern Jiangsu–northern Zhejiang zone and a clear shift over time from highly concentrated to more dispersed and territorially balanced recognition. Second, human-environment factors—especially factors such as urban and rural income and consumption; residents’ education and cultural expenditures; and public education and cultural facilities—have far greater explanatory power than natural conditions, while different ICH categories embed distinctively in urban and rural socio-economic contexts. Third, bivariate interactions reveal that natural and macroeconomic “background” variables are strongly amplified when combined with demographic and cultural factors, whereas interactions among strong human variables show bivariate enhancement with diminishing marginal returns. In summary, these findings enrich international debates on the geography of ICH by clarifying how recognition processes align with regional development and social equity agendas, and they provide a quantitative basis for category-sensitive, place-based strategies that coordinate income policies, public cultural services, and the joint safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage in both urban renewal and rural revitalization planning.

El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar algunas experiencias investigativas que, desde el Diseño se han llevado a cabo para la salvaguardia del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial (PCI), como parte del desarrollo social en grupos vulnerables. Así, se muestran proyectos de Diseño Gráfico y de Diseño Industrial que han promovido el desarrollo social, a partir de su interacción con las comunidades, lo que ha permitido participar en ámbitos del PCI como técnicas artesanales tradicionales y usos sociales, rituales y actos festivos.
 Se presentan algunos de los resultados de investigación más sobresalientes, especialmente los beneficios hacia los actores, quienes son, por un lado, los investigadores y alumnos que realizan los análisis de estas manifestaciones, interactuando con las comunidades, desarrollado propuestas desde el diseño y generando conocimiento, por otro lado, los portadores del patrimonio, es decir, las comunidades quienes llevan a cabo actos festivos o rituales y usos sociales tradicionales y grupos de artesanos.
 En el contexto educativo, se aportan herramientas metodológicas para el análisis de los procesos de salvaguardia del PCI, que se han generado desde la investigación de diseño social enfocada al PCI, especialmente la elaboración de inventarios y la implementación de estrategias de salvaguardia; así visualizar la importancia de introducir temáticas de PCI en las áreas académico-pedagógicas para el diseño y en sus diferentes niveles.
 Para la elaboración de este artículo se enuncian algunas investigaciones, donde los resultados son contribuciones a los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, las cuales, son incorporadas a las áreas académicas de los diferentes programas, de Diseño, en los niveles de licenciatura, maestría y doctorado. De manera que podemos observar en este trabajo, la dinámica que se establece entre las áreas de investigación y las academias y cómo a través de esta labor se da generación de conocimiento y se establecen nuevas estrategias para abordar las problemáticas de desarrollo social.

This paper reports on an intangible cultural heritage forum held at the Australian Museum, Sydney, in 2007. Forum participants, including representatives from Fiji, Guam, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Yap as well as members of Sydney’s heritage community, contributed to a debate on the question of what the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003 means in practical terms to Pacific countries and how the Australian Museum might work in partnership with them in their safeguarding efforts. Importantly, the forum allowed the interests of traditional knowledge holders to be considered and for a number of concerns to be noted. These concerns are also of significance for those working more broadly in the field of intangible cultural heritage and are reported below.

The notions of «intangible cultural heritage» and «cultural diversity», as defined within the UNESCO Conventions for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), promote renewed frameworks and approaches to cultural policies, based on the community and civil society participation. The Mediterranean, as sea and land of encounter for cultures and migrations, is a vital area of traditional and creative cultural expressions, as shown by some positive examples described in the article. Human mobility, as a right claimed by the Carta di Palermo (2015), is also a relevant resource of cultural dimension, which is useful in the planning of actions for social and economic development, in an integrated and sustainable perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced museums to rethink their activity in the context of social media, thus generating new ways of communicating and educating about the heritage they preserve. This article explores the indissoluble relationship established between these emerging edu-communication models and the spaces destined to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage (ICH), since the latter is a sociocultural phenomenon whose museumization requires education and civic participation. In order to determine to what extent museum edu-communication inspired by the co-creative paradigm can be extended into formal teaching contexts for the generation of heritage bonds and communities around ICH, two cases produced at the J. Trepat Factory Museum in Tàrrega (Spain) are analyzed through an autoethnographic approach. Both examples encourage a reflection on how the co-creative paradigm makes it possible to raise awareness and involve the entire community in the safeguarding of heritage, while at the same time promoting the expansion and reformulation of the institution’s proposals. We conclude that the integration of this approach into formal pedagogical practices contributes to overcoming some of the limitations of non-formal and informal edu-communication, as well as to generating a rhizomatic identization around ICH.

Resolving tensions between tourism commercialisation and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding is an important objective. Using the frontstage-backstage metaphor as an analytical lens, we investigate how tourism promotes ICH safeguarding and how detrimental aspects of tourism commercialisation can be handled in Miao silverware tourism in Fenghuang, China. Results show that tourism commercialisation is beneficial because it provides new possibilities and promotes the transformation of ICH. However, fake ICH products are detrimental, prioritising commercial value over ICH value. ICH inheritors create two separate commercial spaces to handle the segmented tourism market. The frontstage-backstage metaphor helps to investigate the transformational process of ICH in tourism and socio-psychological dilemmas of cultural practitioners in dealing with the multiplying realities of ICH.

Using the example of Germany, this chapter examines how and to which extent the inclusion of regional cultural forms on one of the lists of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) can contribute to the sustainable development and vitalisation of peripheral rural areas. Against this backdrop it discusses the potential of a joint approach between rural development policy and ICH. Following Marlen Meissner, we understand ICH as a cultural policy instrument and incorporated cultural capital in the sense of Bourdieu, but expand this perspective to include a theoretical framework that takes a closer look at the current requirements of rural development policy. As a heuristic for documenting the impact of an ICH application process for a rural region, the text draws on the concept of “cultural resilience”. This brings aspects of resourcefulness, rootedness, and resistance to the fore. In this context, the application process itself, as the empirical examples show, is of great importance.