China Intangible Cultural Heritage By UNESCO

UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance. This list is published by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the members of which are elected by State Parties meeting in a General Assembly, which UNESCO has identified as an essential component and as a repository of cultural diversity and of creative expression.

China Intangible Cultural Heritage By UNESCO

By the end of 2018, China has 41 elements included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list (including “Urgent Safeguarding List” and “Register of Good Safeguarding Practices”), which is also the country with the largest number of intangible cultural heritage in the world. The declaration of this element must have three basic conditions: artistic value, endangered condition and a complete protection plan.

Representative List

Urgent Safeguarding List

Register of Good Safeguarding Practices

Proclaimed Masterpieces

The Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage were established in 2008, when the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage took effect. Prior to this, a project known as the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity has already been active in recognizing the value of intangibles such as tradition, custom and cultural spaces and the local actors who sustain these forms of cultural expressions through a Proclamation. Identification of the Masterpieces also entails the commitment of states to promote and safeguard these treasures, while UNESCO finances plans for their conservation. Started in 2001 and held biennially until 2005, a total of three Proclamations occurred, encompassing 90 forms of intangible heritage around the world.

The 90 previously proclaimed Masterpieces have been incorporated into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as its first entries, to be known as elements. Subsequent elements will be added following the assessment of nominations submitted by national governments acceding to the UNESCO Convention, termed as member states, who are each allowed to submit a single candidature file, in addition to multi-national candidatures. A panel of experts in intangible heritage and an appointed body, known as the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, then examine each of the nominations before officially inscribing the candidates as elements on the List.

Keep Reading

• Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritage
• National Intangible Cultural Heritages List
• Organizations of Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Administrative Divisions of China
• Brief China Facts
• China Festivals
• China Traditional Villages
• China World Heritage Sites
• Chinese Agricultural Calendar
• Chinese Architecture
• Chinese Performance
• Ethnic Culture in China
• Religions in China