2023-04-11
Wang Xiaofeng
President of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association
Full text:
Your Excellencies, distinguished guests:
Today I would like to speak on “Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development in Culture & Tourism Integration.”
The integration of culture and tourism meets practical needs for cultural inheritance and innovation, and represents an inevitable choice for the thriving of tourism. It has become a significant trend in the development of world tourism and a distinctive feature of China’s tourism industry in the new era.
Tourism involves the most frequent and extensive exchanges and interactions in the world. It plays a very important role in disseminating cultures, exchanging views, and building friendship. Intangible cultural heritage, which epitomizes the cultural achievements and growth in the history of a nation and its people, is an indicator of cultural diversity and plurality. Due to the characteristics of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, the integration of the two provides a very important starting point for the integration of culture and tourism.
Over the recent years, China’s tourism development is well combined with intangible cultural heritage protection. A consensus has been achieved in this regard. China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association has done quite a lot of work in terms of theory, work mechanisms and standard building to promote the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my views.
First of all, the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism has been ongoing for quite a long time, as is widely agreed in the industry. Tourists who travel to a new locality can feel local culture, and by exploring the cultural connotations of travel, tourist destinations step up efforts to drive the growth of tourism. This is a basic pattern and broad consensus in the world tourism industry. In China, we opened up a large number of famous tourist attractions in the very beginning, which boasted a great wealth of intangible cultural heritage. We called it “traditional culture” or “outstanding traditional culture” back then, which included, for example, folk songs, folk literature, folk art, and traditional handicrafts. They entered tourist attractions at a very early time, and have become an important window to showcase the local culture, features and charm.
In 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) initiated the proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. China was among the first countries to submit the nominations and Kunqu Opera became the first masterpiece of China’s intangible heritage to be included in the UNESCO’s register. Chairman Zhang Xu started the work concerning intangible heritage when he was serving as the Chinese Vice-Minister of Culture and Tourism.
Since then, intangible cultural heritage has gradually been accepted by the general public. It has become a household concept and buzzword, receiving close attention and support from all walks of life. When speaking of intangible cultural heritage, the Chinese people find it endearing and familiar. As an important part of cultural resources, the intangible cultural heritage is more and more widely, closely and effectively connected with tourism.
Secondly, intangible cultural heritage and tourism are mutually reinforcing and naturally connected. They attract, promote and complement each other as intangible cultural heritage represents the area where culture and tourism are most naturally and closely connected. The fact that the intangible cultural heritage is concrete and unique to a certain region makes the integration between culture and tourism focused and distinctive. However, culture covers an extensive scope with a very blurred boundary. People often felt at a loss about how to carry out work to advance integration between culture and tourism. Although the intangible cultural heritage also covers a wide scope and involves many categories, it is comparatively specific, bounded and mesoscopic.
The intangible cultural heritage can be protected through specific projects. The integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism is to incorporate into tourism the intangible cultural heritage elements that can be seen, felt and heard to empower and enrich the travel. During the journey, the connotations of the intangible cultural heritage are interpreted, its significance in the new context is explained, and its value is promoted. In this way, effective protection and contemporary expression of the intangible cultural heritage are realized.
As the environment in which people live varies, so does the intangible cultural heritage, which formed as a result of people’s different ways of living and production. The intangible cultural heritage is a unique mark of a certain space and the product of the environment. Among the items included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the lists of intangible cultural heritage of China at all levels and in particular China’s national register, more than 80% are named after a country, region, or ethnic group. Being unique to a certain region is among the most important characteristics of the intangible cultural heritage.
Tourism is a process in which people seek different experience and fresh inspiration, and the attraction of the tourist destination depends on the difference between the place of origin and the destination. A larger difference often implies a greater appeal. The cultural differences between two places are most obviously visible, making the travel a unique experience.
The popularization and market-based operation of tourism provide an important opportunity for sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage. The diminishing difference between regional cultures, which has caused widespread concern, is inevitable in the context of globalization, urbanization, digitalization and rapid change of science and technology. The biggest problem we face in intangible cultural heritage protection is the loss of the social environment in which it is rooted. When the economic foundation or the way of production or living associated with it vanishes, the intangible cultural heritage would gradually be replaced by modern products. Therefore, we face huge difficulties and challenges in the protection of intangible cultural heritage. The large size of the tourism market, the high level of public engagement and the large workforce required for tourism have improved intangible cultural heritage protection to a certain extent. This is a very important feature of integrating intangible cultural heritage protection into tourism.
At present, there are 14,000 Class-A tourist attractions in China, and more than 10,000 tourist destinations have hotels, homestay inns, towns, resorts and blocks that serve the needs of tourists. All these are important venues to showcase the local culture and cultural products. The display, performance, living inheritance and trade related to the intangible cultural heritage at these venues endow the heritage products with the attributes of merchandise, and create economic value for the inheritors who display their skills. In this way, more people are willing to participate in the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, injecting new vitality to the heritage protection and inheritance.
Thirdly, the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism keeps up with the trend of the times. The intangible cultural heritage is the traditional way of living and production that has been carried forward. Its protection must not be divorced from production and life, otherwise it will die out. As for its protection, we have three approaches: emergency protection, productive protection, and holistic protection. But fundamentally, the natural process of intangible cultural heritage protection cannot be separate from the production and living environment. The best way to protect intangible cultural heritage is to bring it into modern lifestyle and production, and an important characteristic of tourism is that it is part of living and enables people to experience a different poetic life somewhere else. The arrival of a large number of non-local tourists will bring different living scenarios and demands, thus improving the ecosystem for the intangible cultural heritage and breathing new life into it. This is becoming a new approach for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
In light of the industry trends in recent years, a tourist destination with a population in the hundreds of thousands can attract millions or even tens of millions of tourists every year, which is a driving force for the inheritance, protection, innovation and development of intangible cultural heritage.
A growing number of intangible cultural heritage projects and inheritors have entered tourist destinations. They created a series of innovative scenarios, showcasing the distinct local culture and bringing tourists an enjoyable and enriched experience. As is said in the slogan of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, intangible cultural heritage will make travel more enjoyable. We have just held China Annual Conference on Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection in Yulin, Shaanxi Province. At the conference, we released the first list of 200 best practices of intangible cultural heritage and tourism projects, including tourist towns, blocks and villages. Inheritors of intangible cultural heritage would gain a great sense of fulfilment by doing their part in integrating intangible cultural heritage and tourism. The integration of the two is an extension of the intangible cultural heritage protection, and an effective way and an important starting point for intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance in the new era.
Fourthly, protection is the top priority in the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism. Protection is a starting point for all work related to intangible cultural heritage, and a mission of great significance for the inheritance of historical and cultural heritage. In order to maintain the sustainable integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, it is necessary to properly deal with the relationship between protection and utilization. We must uphold the principle and meanwhile take into account the practical needs, and establish the administrative coordination mechanism for the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism. First of all, we should set up the mechanism for intangible cultural heritage protection in the integrated development, and follow the basic principles of intangible cultural heritage protection. Secondly, we should ensure and encourage the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to obtain substantial economic benefits and enjoy dignity, which constitutes an important driving force for the sustainable integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, and an important guarantee for the vitality of the integration. We should create a better environment of production, display and inheritance for the heritage inheritors so that we can achieve sustainable integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism. Thirdly, we should set standards for the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, facilitating advance in the work across the country. China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association is promoting the integration of intangible cultural heritage protection and tourism, with the focus laid on a number of holiday projects at tourist attractions, resorts, villages, and towns for intangible cultural heritage protection. We hope more tourist attractions will join us in the practice.
To sum up, the intangible cultural heritage and tourism are mutually reinforcing in essence. The integration, which actually began a long time ago, progresses now as a matter of course, and will remain the trend of the future. And to achieve sustainability, protection is the top priority.
Thank you all!