Financial
Times,
May 18, 2004
PAYING
MORE ATTENTION TO CULTURAL HERITAGE
When Wu Bing'an,
a retired professor from Liaoning University, wrote to authorities
regarding protection of traditional customs and culture, he did
not expect his appeal would create such a public stir. Wu wrote
about the Duanwu Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth
lunar month and has long been regarded as an important traditional
Chinese festival. On that day, people hold dragon boat races and
eat zongzi, special dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. When invited
to an activity to mark the Duanwu Festival in the Republic of Korea
(ROK) earlier this month, Professor Wu, also a member of the committee
for the protection of traditional Chinese customs and culture, was
told by his Korean counterpart the ROK is considering an application
to list the festival in the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). On hearing the news, Wu wrote to a vice minister of China's
Ministry of Culture, appealing for intensified efforts to preserve
traditional Chinese customs. After the news was leaked to the media,
defending the festival from being appropriated as another country's
cultural heritage quickly became a hot topic of public discussion.
The public's
enthusiasm and eagerness to keep our traditional customs and culture
intact are understandable, but it is more important that we take
actions to enrich our national heritage. The latest report confirmed
that so far UNESCO's headquarters based in Paris has received no
such application from the ROK. But even if the country really forwards
such a proposal, we should take it normally. It is widely believed
the Duanwu Festival originated in China some 2,500 years ago. This
custom, however, was spread to Korea as long as 1,000 years ago.
Over the past decades, unique Korea contents have been added into
celebrations of the festival.
Splendid cultural
heritages, no matter where they originated, together constitute
the civilization of humanity and should be enjoyed and cherished
by human beings everywhere. That is the very reason UNESCO set up
the system of preserving precious cultural heritage in all nations.
As a nation that boasts rich cultural heritage, China should have
the confidence and broad mind to view the Dunan Festival issue realistically.
When the news
was driven home, what we think about should not be whether the ROK
is qualified to make such an application, but a thorough review
of our practices of preserving traditional culture. On this point,
we have to admit what we have done is far from enough. As early
as 1967, the Duanwu Festival was listed as a national cultural heritage
in the ROK. In China, the festival itself is unknown to many young
people, let alone its connection with Qu Yuan, a great poet some
2,500 years ago. Our country began to emphasize the importance of
preservation of traditional customs and culture only several years
ago. Compared to the bustling Christmas and Valentine's Day festivities
that have been introduced here in recent years, the cold and cheerless
atmosphere surrounding many traditional Chinese festivals is downright
disgraceful. Shouldn't this phenomenon be cause for consternation?
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