Anne Zhang

    zhangy49@gmail.com

    XIANGZIFANG at the foot of Wutong Mountain in Luohu District is an intangible cultural heritage industrial park where people can enjoy a quaint Chinese atmosphere and be amazed at a variety of Chinese folk arts and crafts, including oiled paper umbrellas from Luzhou, Sichuan Province, embroideries and silver ornaments from Guizhou Province, bamboo weaving and engraving from Sichuan Province and kite-making from Shandong Province.

    Shenzhen is a leader in protecting these intangible cultural heritages (ICH) in a non-local environment after introducing a market mechanism and promoting the application of heritage in daily lives, scholars and experts said in a forum last week in Shenzhen.

    Experts said core values and cultural connotations must be faithfully preserved in non-local preservation of ICH. They also encouraged Shenzhen to keep making innovations in ICH preservation.

    Preservation:

    local or non-local?

    ICH includes traditional oral literature, performing arts, artisanship, medicine and folk customs. Originality and indigenousness have long been considered two of the most prominent features of ICH and have been the foremost focus of ICH protection.

    Many people believe that an ICH item can only survive in its original geographic space, culture and economic environment, said Huang Shifang, director of Shenzhen Special Zone Cultural Research Center.

    However, that environment could alter as time passes. Huang said traditional artisanship could disappear if future generations lose confidence and interest in maintaining it because of its low economic value or if the local government is unable to protect it due to limited financial resources.

    China implemented a law in 2011 that requires governments at all levels to assist with intangible cultural heritage preservation efforts in ethnic minority areas, remote areas and poverty-stricken areas. The law also encourages the development of cultural products and services based on rational use of the representative ICH items.

    “Culture is fluid and full of vitality,” Huang said. “We must take an ever changing perspective on it.”

    Yu Yue, a chief researcher at the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, echoed Huang’s idea.

    Yu, who has studied ethnology for more than 30 years, said that from an ideal scholastic perspective, he wanted every cultural heritage to be preserved in its original way.

    “But that’s impossible,” Yu said. “Cultural heritage can only be preserved if it’s produced and used in people’s daily lives.”

    The traditional artisanship of porcelain making, a national ICH, is preserved and developed in Jingdezhen in his home province of Jiangxi because there is a huge need for porcelain products, Yu said.

    Thousands of people from home and abroad come to Jingdezhen every year to learn how to make porcelain, and new elements are added during the transmissions, which brings vitality to the craft, he said.

    Shenzhen’s leading role

    Apart from Xiangzifang, Shenzhen has several other brand businesses in ICH preservation, including Shenzhen Xiangyunsha Apparel Co., which commits to the preservation and promotion of Xiangyun gauze and gambiered Canton gauze, a traditional fabric dyeing technique in Guangdong Province, and Shenzhen HoHo Culture and Art Co., which primarily promotes traditional Chinese paper cutting originating from Shaanxi Province.

    Experts attribute the booming industry to the city’s nature of being a migrant city and its favorable policies toward ICH preservation.

    “Many inheritors come to Shenzhen and bring their traditional crafts, skills, and customs to the city,” said Dr. Zhuang Xiangyang, a professor with Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology, whose study focuses on cultural market operation and management.

    Ouyang Xiaozhan, CEO of the Xiangyunsha apparel company, introduced the dyeing technique from his hometown to Shenzhen 10 years ago during the city’s first international cultural fair. “We’ve spent more than 10 years preserving, inheriting and developing the technique,” Ouyang said. “Now it has become a brand and its culture has been revitalized and redefined.”

    Shenzhen has listed ICH preservation as a key emerging industry and has offered financial support to develop it, Huang said.

    In 2009, the local government started allowing ICH inheritors from outside to have their cultural items listed in Shenzhen. They can teach their art and skills to apprentices and enjoy a special fund from the Shenzhen government.

    Eight ICH projects received funds totaling 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million) in 2012. The government granted 3.5 million yuan to four more projects last year.

    The city’s openness and developed market offer a solid base for the industrialization of ICH preservation. The annual international cultural industries fair provides a good venue to promote its ICH projects and attract investment, Zhuang said.

    Challenges

    Industrializing ICH preservation in a non-local environment meets with many challenges, experts said.

    “Rational commercialization of ICH helps to preserve and popularize it, but arbitrary misuse and excessive exploitation could distort the core value of an ICH item,” said Xie Junxin, president of Shenzhen Literary and Art Federation.

    Xie said people must have the knowledge and the ability to identify the authentic from the fake when introducing an ICH item.

    In addition, companies and developers in the ICH industry should keep making innovations, such as introducing resources and venture capital from outside and using the Internet to put their business online, said Li Xin, director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and Pacific Region.

    Shaolin martial arts in Songshan, Henan Province, have attracted many international students, so the local government registered the Shaolin Temple as a national Chinese-language training base for overseas students. “This is a good example of introducing outside resources to develop local heritage,” Li said.

    Hu Yanzheng, a professor with Jinggangshan University in Jiangxi Province, praised the Shenzhen model of combining government subsidies and private capital in preserving ICH.

    In many mainland cities, ICH preservation heavily relies on limited government subsidies, which restricts its development, Hu said. He suggested introducing the Shenzhen model to other cities.

    Shenzhen’s Xiangzifang has already started to cooperate with other cities to help develop their ICH projects. “We have signed contracts with two Guangdong cities — Heyuan and Meizhou. We will introduce our ICH management experience to them and help them with their ICH development based on their tourism industry,” said Xiao Weijun, CEO of Shenzhen Wutong Yiyuan Cultural Development Co., which runs the ICH industrial park in Xiangzifang.