China to strengthen tradition protection via heritage festival

The first global event on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) - The Fourth International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage - will be held in Chengdu from June 15 to 23, featuring over 200 shows, commodity fairs, cultural exchanges from all over the world, ICH masters, artists, experts and officials from more than 80 countries. Most of the programs will be free to attend.

Starting in 2007, the biennial festival co-hosted by UNESCO aims to showcase diversified cultural traditions around the world, to introduce the world to China’s efforts in ICH protection and to enhance public awareness for safeguarding traditions.

To celebrate the 10th year of the adoption of The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO member countries, an international conference organized by UNSCO will open in Chengdu on June 14 to improve the international community’s understanding of the Convention’s value and to address problems surrounding the protection of cultural heritage.

The ICH is defined on the UNESCO website as “The practices, representations, expressions, as well as the knowledge and skills (including instruments, objects, artifacts, cultural spaces), that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.”