I would like to thank Dr. Samuel Lee for inviting me to give this tour of the impacts of the 2003 Convention in the Asia-Pacific Region. I’d also like to thank Dr. Weiming for giving a talk that situated the work we do in a broader context and explained our work with intangible cultural heritage. I found it to be a very stimulating talk and a great way to start this day and a half. I am going to talk on a more basic level about what has been done as a result of countries coming together to ratify an international agreement that aims to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. It was a very ambitious program in the beginning. I was privileged to see a little bit of it working with Ms. Aikawa at the UNESCO headquarters during the time leading up to the Convention.
