Nation to strengthen cultural heritage protection

China will step up its cultural heritage protection over the next five years, with a focus on systematic protection, legal safeguards, and bringing heritage closer to people's daily lives, officials said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

The priorities are set out in a five-year plan for cultural heritage protection, issued last month, which aims to build a comprehensive protection framework by 2030 and drive high-quality development in the sector. The plan was also highlighted at the news conference.

The plan, which was issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, lists the main tasks for cultural heritage protection in China during the nation's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period.

"By 2030, China aims to complete a full survey of its heritage resources, put regulatory systems on a sound footing, improve laws and regulations, expand the talent pool, and make protection oversight strong and effective," said Hu Kaihong, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Cultural Heritage Protection.

"A broad framework for cultural heritage protection will have taken shape (by then), fully demonstrating its important role in building a strong socialist culture," Hu added.

Hu said the plan comprises 12 main sections, coordinating protection efforts across cultural relics, intangible cultural heritage, and historical cities, districts and villages, while strengthening the construction and protection of national cultural parks. It covers areas including industrial, agricultural, archival and geographical-name heritage.

He noted that, based on a clear understanding of the nation's cultural heritage resources, the plan seeks to protect all types of heritage — tangible and intangible, cultural and natural — across all regions and time periods, building a comprehensive national protection system.

Historic buildings, districts and villages will be protected as living heritage, with their traditional layouts, streetscapes and cultural settings kept intact.

Protection will also become stricter. The legal framework will be strengthened, and work will move forward on enacting a cultural heritage protection law, closing the gap that has left certain heritage types without a clear legal basis, he said.

During the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the number of museums in China increased from 5,788 to 7,188. Museums across the country hosted more than 224,000 exhibitions and 2.25 million educational activities, drawing more than 6.2 billion visits.

"Visiting a city for an exhibition has become a normal cultural phenomenon, a sign that museum-going has become an important part of people's lives," said Deng Chao, deputy director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Under the new plan, "building museums that meet people's expectations" will be the goal during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. A project to improve the more than 6,000 medium-sized and small museums will be launched, in order to enhance their collections and displays and improve the capabilities of their staff members through cooperation with larger museums.

"We will channel quality exhibition resources to reach the grassroots level, so that these museums can truly become a core force in community-level cultural services," said Deng. "We hope that traveling for exhibitions will no longer mean only Beijing or provincial capitals. In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, let us look forward to following quality exhibitions to more 'treasure-filled' small cities."

As an important category of cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage resources are increasingly woven into people's daily lives, and more efforts will be made to continue the revival of these resources.

Shan Gangxin, head of the intangible cultural heritage department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, noted that China is rich in intangible cultural heritage, with more than 100,000 representative items at various levels, 45 of which are inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity — the most for any country.

Shan added that China will conduct the second national census of intangible cultural heritage to gain a better understanding of the resources.

Furthermore, since the many types of intangible cultural heritage follow different rules of inheritance and development, protection will be tailored to the different types in order to improve transmission and inheritance, he said.

For example, traditional performing arts such as opera will be encouraged to revive in new ways, while traditional crafts like embroidery, wood carving and bamboo weaving will transform from "fingertip handicrafts" into "fingertip livelihoods", giving a boost to the upgrading of traditional craft industries, Shan said.

More venues for inheriting and experiencing intangible cultural heritage will be built in communities, so that people can learn crafts and watch shows close to home.

"In this way, these items return to ordinary alleys and integrate into people's daily lives, and our fine traditional culture can truly take root and grow in people's lives," Shan said.

wangru1@chinadaily.com.cn