There is a lack of understanding about enrollment.
Registering heritage in general and intangible cultural heritage in particular is a task institutionalized under the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Law on Cultural Heritage. Registering is understood as including heritage in lists/catalogues with terms, conditions, and criteria according to current regulations of international documents and Vietnamese law. Based on experience in compiling and appraising dossiers of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO and the country, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hanoi National University, said that in fact, the Law on Cultural Heritage and a number of sub-law documents have provided regulations on registration.
Accordingly, after the registration, the State has paid more attention to investment capital for projects to protect intangible cultural heritage. Localities also have budgets to implement protection projects. The registration also affects awareness, is a great source of encouragement for the community to join hands in preserving, maintaining and promoting the value of heritage. Many organizations, units and people interested in heritage contribute their efforts and money to join the State and the community in protecting and promoting heritage.
Intangible cultural heritage registration has more cultural meaning and value than ranking or status.
For example, in the case of Phu Tho Xoan singing, after being included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent protection (in 2011), the government, agencies, organizations, artisans and people in the province have made efforts to synchronously implement many specific measures and methods as committed in the registration dossier. As a result, after only 6 years, Phu Tho Xoan singing was restored and transferred to the list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (in 2017).
The draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) focuses on three main contents in the approved policies. These include perfecting regulations on principles, subjects, procedures, inventory, identification, registration, measures for management, protection and promotion of cultural heritage values in the field of intangible cultural heritage. According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung: "We must have tools to establish criteria for each level; thereby protecting and promoting heritage well through registration and ranking".
However, in reality, the management and support of resources to protect heritage after inscription also pose many problems. For some intangible cultural heritages, the development and implementation of national action programs as committed in the dossier submitted to UNESCO have not been implemented in a synchronous and regular manner, such as the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space, Ca Tru, Vi and Giam folk songs, and the practice of worshipping the Mother Goddesses of the Three Realms of the Vietnamese people...
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien pointed out: “There is discrimination and comparison between heritages, especially for intangible cultural heritages. Some localities have considered the registration as an “international brand” to be used for different purposes such as promotion, tourism development or record setting… This is due to incomplete understanding of the registration and the real goal of registration”.
Useful tools for heritage protection
Referring to the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended), Director of the Department of Culture - Sports of Thua Thien Hue Phan Thanh Hai said that with intangible heritage, the issue of registration and cancellation of registration (if no longer meeting the criteria) needs to be raised with extreme caution. "It is necessary to anticipate the situation where localities take the registration of heritage as an achievement but do not actually create conditions for the community to preserve and promote the heritage. It is necessary to anticipate the situation where some types of intangible cultural heritage are hidden under the name of the registered intangible heritage, for example, after the practice of the Mother Goddess Worship was recognized by UNESCO, superstitious elements developed widely, in the form of spirit mediumship."
Clause 2, Article 16 of the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) stipulates that the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee is responsible for developing a project to protect and promote the value of intangible cultural heritage after being listed in the locality. For intangible cultural heritage that has been listed and is distributed in two or more provinces, the Provincial People's Committee that submits the scientific dossier for listing is responsible for presiding over the development of a project to protect and promote the value of the heritage, and seeking consensus from the People's Committees of the remaining provinces before promulgation. Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, former Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, said that this needs to be carefully considered, because heritage that has not been listed/not yet listed still needs to be protected and promoted.
According to many experts, UNESCO's recognition of intangible cultural heritage is not about outstanding global and international values, but basically, the heritage has a function and meaning for the host community and is considered by the community as an identity and continuity between generations. With these criteria, the recognition has more cultural meaning and value than ranking or class. The recognition plays a very important role in adjusting and supplementing the law, as well as changing the way of perceiving, protecting and promoting heritage.
To avoid the "misunderstanding" that registration makes heritage more unique and valuable than unregistered heritage, according to Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien, the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) needs to have specific provisions on the purpose of registration, aiming to better protect heritage, associated with sustainable development.
Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/lam-ro-muc-tieu-ghi-danh-de-bao-ve-di-san-tot-hon-post365890.html
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