THE first court case to enforce China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Law has ended with the plaintiff’s disappointment over a ruling in relation to a wrongly titled piece of heritage.

The Beijing Intermediate People’s Court, in its final judgement, acquitted internationally acclaimed director Zhang Yimou of suspected copyright infringement charges. The case involved an opera from Anshun City, Guizhou Province, called Dixi. Anshun Dixi was listed as national intangible cultural heritage opera in 2006.

In May 2010, the Anshun culture authority took Zhang, as well as film producer Zhang Weiping and the film distribution company, to court for using footage of Anshun Dixi in one of Zhang’s films but not crediting Anshun.

“This is a kind of ‘Yunnan mask opera,’” said the subtitle in Zhang’s 2005 film “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles” when footage of Anshu Dixi is part of the plot. The plaintiff argued that the film misled viewers, as it gave the impression the opera could be found in Yunnan, not Anshun.

Zhan Xueyan, leader of a local Dixi performing troupe and one of the Dixi performers in Zhang’s film, appeared in court as a witness. He said Zhang’s crew invited eight of their performers to Lijiang in Yunnan to shoot two performances of Anshun Dixi. “What we performed in the film are the original versions of two plays of our traditional Dixi,” he told the court.

Li Jun, the plaintiff’s attorney, played the film in court to show that Dixi had been used in the film. Li said in the indictment that his client has no objection to using “fiction” based on Anshun Dixi, as the defendant cited in the first trial, but said that it was the fault of the defendant for not mentioning that Dixi is from Anshun.

“With no crediting as Anshun Dixi, audiences thought the opera was created by Zhang Yimou instead of the national intangible cultural heritage Anshun Dixi. It is an insult to Anshun people,” Li said in court.

The defendant’s lawyer argued that Anshun Dixi is a folk opera that has been passed on from ancient times with no specific writer. “Since it is listed as national intangible cultural heritage, it belongs to the people so there is no civil right to a certain individual or party,” the defendant’s lawyer said.

The court ruled that Anshun Dixi is not a piece of work thus has no individual right of authorship under the copyright law.

Dixi opera, known for its colorful masks and costumes, was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2007. It dates back to the late 14th century when Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) stationed frontier forces in Anshun. The migrant population and their descendants created and developed the opera.

Zou Zhengming, director of Anshun culture authority said after the trial that they would carry on the effort to protect local cultural heritage, despite having lost the lawsuit. “What we want is really simple: to let the public know the opera featured in the film is from Anshun not Yunnan,” he said. “We don’t care whether we win (the case) or not, it will be enough to bring public attention to intangible cultural heritage protection and the legislation.”

(SD-Agencies)