The "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day" in 2024 is approaching. The theme of this year’s intangible cultural heritage publicity and exhibition activities is "protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage, continuing the historical context and writing the chapter of the times". Compared with last year’s "Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization and Cultural Self-confidence and Self-improvement", this theme highlights the historical dimensions of protection and inheritance, that is, past, present and future. Continuing the historical context focuses on making intangible cultural heritage better come out of history, and writing the chapter of the times is to make intangible cultural heritage better enter a new era and move towards the future.
It is our expectation for the intangible heritage, and it is also the starting point and the foothold to protect and inherit the intangible heritage. After all, the intangible cultural heritage is not only the trace and witness of the past life, but the "root" and "soul" left by our ancient nation to the present and the future, bearing incalculable historical and cultural values. For these intangible heritages with diverse categories, wide fields and rich contents, they are a sensible and experienced "skill" or a meaningful life that can be participated in and realized; Deep down, they are a cultural epic, engraved with the spiritual "code" of our Chinese civilization; From a distance, it is a collective memory about the production and life of ancestors and the exchanges and exchanges between ethnic groups, bearing the heavy responsibility of casting a solid sense of the Chinese nation’s community and helping the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Let the intangible heritage go out of history, into the present and into the future, which can neither be achieved overnight nor once and for all. We must follow the law of intangible heritage protection and inheritance, protect it with initial heart, inherit it with ingenuity, and develop and utilize it with awe.
To protect the intangible heritage with the initial heart, we must let the intangible heritage return to "life" and reproduce the "truth". Non-legacy is to life what live fish is to rivers. Every intangible cultural heritage is not a fragment of production and life, but a complete and organic production and life, which is the daily life of people and things in a specific "scene". To protect the intangible cultural heritage with the initial heart and practice the concept of "seeing people, seeing things and seeing life", it is necessary to let the intangible cultural heritage return to the "scene", make it participate in production and life again, and become one of the "protagonists" of the cultural habitat again. The ancient city of Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, which won the "Model Award for China’s Human Settlements", has a history of more than 1,000 years and a protected area of 53 hectares. At present, more than 20,000 residents still live in traditional houses with red "smoke-baked bricks". Tasting Fujian tea and chatting about the daily life of the ancient city has attracted more than 60 cultural formats with non-legacy and old craftsmanship to settle here. This is the dynamic preservation of inheriting history and continuing life, the vivid practice of "seeing people, seeing things and seeing life", and the concrete embodiment of guarding the intangible heritage with the initial heart.
Inheriting the intangible heritage with ingenuity, we must adapt the intangible heritage to the present and highlight the "true color". Every non-legacy has a touching story, and each story reflects the diligence and courage of the Chinese nation and the wisdom of transforming nature and social life. Folk literature, traditional drama and other intangible styles directly record the history, continue the context and nourish the folk culture. Inheriting the intangible heritage with ingenuity means persisting in innovation, grasping its "essence" and keeping its characteristics in the process of active innovation, pursuit of perfection and creation of fine products, and continuously enhancing the attraction of intangible heritage in iterative upgrading. In recent years, on the basis of retaining the characteristics and essence of traditional art, Henan operas have constantly innovated their programs, and launched modern Henan operas such as Jiao Yulu and Li Tiancheng, a village official, and the innovative musical Faith, which won the audience’s love and made the "old tree" of non-legacy operas sprout, add vitality and highlight its true colors. This is the result of ingenuity in intangible heritage, the result of ingenuity and intangible heritage "two-way trip", and the result of upholding awe, following the law of intangible heritage development and rational development and utilization.
To develop and utilize intangible cultural heritage with awe, we must follow the law and show our "skills". Every intangible heritage is a "living history" left to future generations, bearing the hard exploration achievements of the Chinese nation from generation to generation. Intangible heritage, as a cultural event that originated from ancient life and continued through history to today, has its own characteristics and laws. The process of developing and utilizing intangible heritage is not only a process of grasping the law of intangible heritage, protecting and inheriting intangible heritage according to the law, but also a process of activating the vitality of Chinese excellent traditional culture with the spirit of the times. To develop and utilize intangible cultural heritage with awe, we should focus on "deciphering" intangible cultural genes and spiritual codes, open a new channel through history and the future, connect with the powerful "context" and endless "motive force" bred by China’s millions of years of human history, 10,000 years of cultural history and 5,000 years of civilization history, explore and show intangible "skills" and help the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. To develop and utilize intangible cultural heritage with awe, we should not only focus on improving the cultural and ecological environment from the big picture, but also focus on "embroidery" from the small details, fully tap the historical and cultural heritage behind intangible cultural heritage, integrate historical culture with modern life, and make intangible cultural heritage truly become a daily life for the people and a "source of living water" facing the future.
Intangible heritage is a precious gift left by ancient people, a unique cultural memory of human beings and a dynamic "living life", which plays an extremely important role in serving the people’s livelihood and helping to build a strong cultural country. On the occasion of "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day", we should focus on the theme of "protecting the heritage, continuing the historical context, and writing the chapter of the times", reiterate the preciousness of the initial heart, the importance of ingenuity, and the key to awe, and re-understand the concept of "seeing people and things and seeing life" and the policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization, inheritance and development" in order to further form. (Author: Lou Huafeng, Wang Weihua, respectively, Professor of College of Literature, Minzu University of China, Ph.D. student)