Practical Exploration and Chinese Experience of the Documentation Project for National-level Representative Bearers of Intangible Cultural Heritage
The Documentation Project for National-level Representative Bearers of Intangible Cultural Heritage is a foundational and strategic project within China’s systematic safeguarding framework for intangible cultural heritage (ICH). After more than a decade of large-scale implementation and standardization, the Project has undergone a strategic transformation from emergency rescue documentation of endangered skills to normalized living archival documentation. It has thereby established a localized system of living safeguarding that differs from the international paradigm of static museum collection. Grounded in the essential characteristics of living ICH transmission in China and in the country’s cultural governance context, this article systematically examines the multiple motivations, staged evolution, and implementation outcomes of the Project. It distills China’s experience in the digital safeguarding of ICH from four dimensions: governance mechanisms, documentation paradigms, cultural adaptation, and public services. In light of the new context of ICH transmission in the digital-intelligent era, the article further analyzes current practical challenges, including the imbalance between standardization and personalization, insufficient activation of documentation outputs, gaps in hierarchical coverage, and weak adaptability of technological empowerment. The study argues that, in the new era, the Project should be iteratively upgraded through five pathways: improving the standards system through hierarchical and categorized measures, promoting output transformation through multiple channels, strengthening grassroots foundations through four-level coordination, upgrading safeguarding capacity through digital-intelligent technologies, and disseminating the Chinese paradigm through international communication. These pathways may provide a replicable Chinese approach for the global safeguarding of living cultural heritage.
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