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Safeguarding Policy
ICH Materials 2
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Interview about Beijing’s Regulations for Safeguarding ICHNew regulations to safeguard intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in Beijing were approved last month by the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress. According to Chinese media such as Xinhua, CGTN, and Beijing Qianlong, these regulations are scheduled to be implemented in June this year. By the end of June, last year, Beijing registered over twelve thousand ICH items, including Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera. To get information about how these new legal measures would change the topography of ICH safeguarding in Beijing as well as in China, Jinhee Oh, an ICHCAP staff member, interviewed Zhu Gang, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Literature, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.\n\nJinhee Oh: Could you explain what it means for Beijing making local regulations for safeguarding ICH?\n\nZhu Gang: The recently approved Beijing Municipal Regulations of ICH sets up a landmark for implementing the UNESCO 2003 Convention in China. In accordance with the spirit of the Convention as well as with that of ICH law of the People’s Republic of China that was put into force in 2011, the current regulations aim to ensure the transmission and enhancement of Chinese traditional culture through safeguarding ICH presented in Beijing and neighboring areas.\n\nJinhee Oh: How are the regulations organized and on what were they founded?\n\nZhu Gang: The regulations follow the general principles and ideas of the national law of China. For example, its aims, ICH domains, chapter structure, and defined legal responsibilities are in line with existing national ICH law. However, it would be inaccurate to conclude that the current regulation is simply another local duplicate of the national law. As suggested by the 2017 annual report of ICH in China released by the National Center for the Safeguarding of ICH, the national law passed in 2011 provides a legal scheme for safeguarding ICH in China, but it is also necessary and important to elaborate an instrument to more concretely implement the law for better ICH safeguarding and sustainable development at the national level. Therefore, the emergence of the regulations is timely and should be considered a concrete implementation of the national law.\nJinhee Oh: What do you think is the most significant feature of the regulations?\n\nZhu Gang: The regulations define the general principles and related mechanisms for recognizing representative bearers at the local level. Moreover, the concept of a representative bearer covers not only individuals but also groups. It is the first time in China that a legal instrument mentions the concerned groups who could be identified as representative bearers. Following the spirit of the 2003 Convention, which places communities, groups, and individuals as its central focus, the current regulations pay great attention to ICH practitioners and provide them with both legal rights and obligations for transmitting ICH.\n\nJinhee Oh: Could you tell us more about something new or different in the regulations in comparison to the national law? Moreover, how do you think the regulations may influence the Chinese ICH safeguarding environment at local and national levels in the future?\n\nZhu Gang: The regulations mention the monitoring of the implementation of safeguarding plans proposed by various bodies. This regulation will have great effects for safeguarding ICH at the municipal and district levels. Relevant mechanisms for evaluating the implementation of safeguarding measures would be established. According to the regulations, if illegal behavior is confirmed through serious evaluation, the included elements could be removed from the representative list or the already identified representative bearers could lose their official titles. This is also something new and different from the national Law.\n\nIn general, Beijing Municipal Regulations of Intangible Cultural Heritage are believed to serve as a solid legal framework for safeguarding ICH in Beijing. Comparing to the national law, it follows the basic principles but is more concrete. In the long run, implementing the regulations would provide valuable lessons for China to elaborate its own version of the 2003 Convention’s Operational Directives.\n\nPhoto 1 : Beijing Opera ⓒ 2009 by Zhao Yiping Beijing Bureau of Culture via UNESCO\nPhoto 2 : Kun Qu opera © Chinese Academy of Arts via UNESCOYear2019NationChina
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The National Program for ICH Safeguarding in MongoliaBy the 68th resolution of the government of Mongolia, the National Program for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage was approved on 13 February 2019. This national program will be implemented between 2019 and 2023, and it has six parts.\n\n 1. Justifications\n 2. Objectives, purposes, and duration\n 3. Activities to be implemented within the framework of the national program\n 4. Evaluation criteria for implementing the national program\n 5. Financing the national program\n 6. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of national program\n\nSeveral articles associated with protecting and safeguarding traditional culture, its transmission, development, research, and dissemination were reflected on the Constitution of Mongolia, the National Security Concept of Mongolia, the Concept of Mongolia’s Foreign Policy, the Concept of Sustainable Development of Mongolia, the State Policy on Culture, the Law of Culture, the Law on Protection of Cultural Heritage, and the Law of Mongolian Language.\n\nThe Mongolian Law on Protecting Cultural Heritage was amended in 2014 by the State Great Khural for regulating relations associated with the fifteen ICH classifications, the rights and duties of ICH practitioners, an organization of transmission activities and so on.\n\nBetween 2005 and 2016, the government of Mongolia approved and implemented national programs for ICH elements, including morin khuur, traditional long song, and Mongol khoomei, which were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and Mongolian traditional folk dance bii biyelgee, Mongol epic, and Mongol tsuur, which were inscribed on the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The NCCH has taken part in implementing these programs. As a result, these national programs have had positive changes in safeguarding ICH, such as identifying ICH practitioners from elders, organizing apprenticeship training, promoting traditional culture and cultural heritage abroad and nationwide, transmitting ICH to younger generations, building pride in ICH, and self-researching ICH.\n\nThe national programs were implemented only for the folk performing arts domain—one of the five UNESCO domains of ICH—but were not implemented for the other domains.It is a demanding task to implement ways to increase and improve research and safeguarding efforts for ICH in every domain represented in nomadic culture as well as to promote ICH abroad and nationally, and, at the same time, also increase the social and economic status of ICH practitioners while improving their skill and opening possibilities to introduce the cultural industry as a form of a tourist product.\n\nThe main objective of this national program is to identify ICH elements of ethnic groups in Mongolia and to research, register, document safeguard, transmit, and disseminate the ICH elements abroad and nationally.\n\nWithin the program’s framework, the following objectives were put forward to be implemented:\n\n-To improve the policy and legal environment of ICH and to intensify the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage\n-To improve research, documentation, and activities of ICH registration and information database in accordance with international standards\n-To organize and conduct activities associated with raising the general public’s awareness about ICH and disseminating ICH abroad and nationally based on intersectoral cooperation\n-To increase the ICH specialists’ capacity and support ICH practitioners\n\nPhoto : Sambuugiin Pürevjav of Altai Khairkhan (an overtone singing ensemble from Mongolia) playing a morin khuur near Centre Georges Pompidou in 2005 CCBY 2.5 Eric PouhierYear2019NationMongolia