MORE than 3,200 activities were held across China to celebrate this year’s Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, which fell on June 8. The massive number of events and broad extent of activities show the importance China attributes to the subjects.   

    Since 2006, China has been celebrated Cultural Heritage Day on the second Saturday of June. In 2017, it was renamed Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.

    China has set up a nationwide intangible cultural heritage protection network comprising 2,467 institutions and 17,308 personnel as of the end of 2018, according to a government report.

    These institutions sponsored about 65,500 related performances and over 16,800 folk culture activities in 2018, attracting 98 million audience members, said the report from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

    In 2018, a total of 1,082 individuals were newly recognized as artists with the responsibility of carrying forward the country’s intangible cultural heritage, figures from the report show.

    The figure brought the total number of national-level inheritors of intangible cultural heritage in China to 3,068.

    China has 1,372 representative intangible cultural heritage programs under State protection and 40 programs on the UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

    The government earmarked 201 million yuan last year from the central budget for building 26 national facilities for the protection and utilization of intangible cultural heritage.

    China has, in recent years, continued to promote regulations, classified protection, capacity-building and international exchanges concerning intangible cultural heritage, said Li Jinzao, vice minister of culture and tourism.

    “The environment to inherit and develop intangible cultural heritage has significantly improved, and colorful intangible cultural heritages are blossoming in the garden of Chinese culture,” Li added.

    (Xinhua)