Various Items of State-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage in Hunan Being Endangered

DATE:11-06-2012

Nie Fangjun, a successor of Fenghuang paper crafts and his paper-made lions' heads.

Tujia people in Xiangxi Autonomous Region are performing Daliuzi, a kind of folk instrumental ensemble.

Cultural Heritage Day fell on May 9 this year, themed with "Cultural Heritage and Cultural Prosperity". It is learned from the Hunan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center that some of 99 items of state-level intangible cultural heritage in Hunan are endangered, such as Youshui boatmen haozi (labor songs), Changsha Tanci (storytelling) and Jiangyong Nushu (women's script). There is a long way to go to protect the intangible cultural heritage.
Various factors like environment change and insufficient investment have put some state-level intangible heritage in an endangered state. Additionally, there are no effective methods and scientific plans to protect them. A system for intangible cultural heritage transmission needs establishing and improving, because ways to inherit some items of intangible cultural heritage are few with simple protection and low efficiency. Worse still, the public has not yet realized the importance of intangible cultural heritage protection and there are quite a few people who opine that we should do nothing to these items or we can protect them when our economy is well-developed.

Translator: Wu Lirong

Source: enghunan.gov.cn