By Antoaneta Bezlova
The government decision to trim the May Day holiday to one working day from three and add three traditional Chinese festivals as one-day public holidays followed a recent international black-eye for China. The country saw one of its most treasured events, the Dragon Boat Festival celebrated in June, nominated and later successfully listed as an intangible part of the cultural heritage of neighboring South Korea.
The listing angered Chinese scholars and officials who accused South Korea of brazenly encroaching on China's cultural heritage.
Since the 2005 UNESCO listing of the Dragon Boat festival, South Korea has applied to have its ritualized Confucius memorial ceremony listed as another unique cultural heritage and is reported ready with an application for the listing of "Chinese traditional medicine" as "Korean traditional medicine".
To Beijing's angst, other countries have also succeeded in claiming parts of cultural heritage that China considers as its own. Vietnam was successful in listing royal court music (yayue in China) as its unique cultural form while Cambodia has claimed the famous shadow puppets for itself.
"It is not enough to talk just about territorial integrity - China needs to safeguard its cultural sovereignty too," argues literary scholar Bai Gengsheng. "Unlike material culture which is traceable, intangible cultural heritage can be very contentious and we must design strategies to preserve China's heritage from being lost to other countries."
The way forward in cultural preservation is much debated. Zhang believes the government has simply left no room for traditional culture to exist alongside China's modernity, choosing instead to artificially showcase it on special occasions.
Yayue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
雅樂
Ceremonial Music
Korean Performing Arts - Religious Dances
Traditional Korean Music - Religious Music - Buddhism ...
Traditional Dance and Music
雅樂音樂制作
歡迎光臨雅樂音響劇院工程公司
Gagaku Roots
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