New regulations on designation of carriers of intangible cultural heritage

China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has just promulgated regulations on how to go about the official designation of particular individuals as carriers of China’s intangible cultural heritage. Article 5 lists some of the qualifications:

国家级非物质文化遗产代表性传承人应当锤炼忠诚、执着、朴实的品格,增强使命和担当意识,提高传承实践能力,在开展传承、传播等活动时遵守宪法和法律法规,遵守社会公德,坚持正确的历史观、国家观、民族观、文化观,铸牢中华民族共同体意识,不得以歪曲、贬损等方式使用非物质文化遗产。(National-level representative carriers of intangible cultural heritage should have a character tempered by loyalty, perseverance, and simplicity, should strengthen consciousness of mission and responsibility, and raise their practical ability to carry on the heritage; when carrying out activities to carry on and propagate the heritage, they should respect the constitution and laws and regulations, respect social morality, uphold a correct view of history, of the state, of the nation (民族 minzu), and of the culture; they should firmly hold to* the idea of the community of the Chinese nation (民族 minzu); and they may not use intangible cultural heritage in distorting, derogatory, or other ways.)

Right. That is exactly the kind of person that throughout history has produced the great cultural treasures of mankind.

* The Chinese term I have translated as “firmly hold to” is 铸牢; I can’t find it in any dictionary (and I have lots), but this is more or less what it seems to mean, given the context and the characters making up the word, as well as my lack of time to think of a better translation.

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