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College Students’ Attitudes Towards Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritages (ICH)

Tina Zhao

University of California, Davis

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Abstract

Intangible Cultural Heritages (ICH) are any practices, traditions, rituals in the form of art,

oral and physical performances; it also comprises culturally significant objects or instruments

that belong to a community or individual (Rees, 2017). Exploring and safeguarding intangible

cultural heritages are important tasks to prevent ICH from disappearing. This research paper

describes the current situation of safeguarding ICH, introduces factors that are affecting the

protection of ICH, and discusses the awareness and attitudes of younger generations, especially

college students, toward ICH as well as its protection. This research was conducted using survey

questions and collected responses from 21 college students. The data collected was organized

into tables, charts, and graphs for analysis. The results conclude: college students have a fair

knowledge level about ICH, most believe that barriers preventing ICH’s transmission exist, and

further actions should be taken to provide more resources to make ICH more accessible.

Keywords: Intangible Cultural Heritages, Asia, culture transmission, UNESCO, protection,

safeguarding.

Introduction

Intangible Cultural Heritage describes the practices, skills, knowledge, expressions, and

rituals that are recognized by a local community as their heritages (Rees, 2017). ICHs are in the

form of “immaterial manifestations of culture” and they represent “the variety of living heritages

of humanity as well as the most important vehicle of cultural diversity” (Lenzerini 2011).

Additionally, I assert here that ICHs also represent a community’s spiritual development. They

serve as evidence for the history of social development and therefore crucial for a country and its

people. I have known some people from my community who are involved with spreading and
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safeguarding ICH; at the same time, I play the instrument Qin, which is inscribed on the

Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of China in the year of 2003

(China Daily, 2016).

Local communities and organizations are putting a lot of effort into promoting and

raising the public’s awareness on ICH. People who commit themselves to ICH safeguarding do

not lack ideas, opportunities or inspirations to advertise ICH. However, the public awareness of

Intangible Cultural Heritages is still inadequate. Meanwhile, the popularization and transmission

of ICH requires participation from younger generations in a given society. The views and

reactions from a community’s youth play essential roles in the process of transmission from one

generation to the next. Hence, this research mainly concerns itself with what is preventing the

transmission of ICH and to have a better understanding of the attitudes of younger generations,

especially college students, toward ICH.

Literature Review

Individuals, communities, organizations, and countries are making efforts and

contributions for safeguarding and transmitting ICH. Cultural heritages are transmitted from one

generation to the next generation through teaching, learning, and practicing in both oral and

physical forms. Such transmission of ICH requires both local and governmental support to strive

for survival. Policies regarding the protection of ICH can be very helpful and effective. For

example, Japan and The Republic of Korea were the first countries in the world that passed laws

on protecting ICH; Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was passed in Japan, 1950 and

Cultural Property Preservation Law passed in Korea, 1962 (Rees, 2017). Policies from these two

countries inspired further protection policies in other countries. Countries like China also put in

effort in safeguarding ICH. Social event and public benefit activities took place in major cities
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like Beijing; more and more practices are getting nominated and inscribed as national-level ICH;

and Intangible Cultural Heritage Law was publicized in 2011 (Rees, 2017).

Even though these policies enforced the inheritance of ICH to some extent, it is still

difficult to raise the public’s awareness regarding the importance and necessity of finding ICH

inheritors. People are paying less attention to cultural heritages that are distantly related to them,

leaving a lot of heritages dying out. Such condition is facilitating the decline of more traditions,

practices, skills and knowledge. Current research available on ICH concludes that the factors

affecting the safeguarding of ICH is made up of two parts: the issues with culture inheritors and

the issues with characters of ICH itself.

The first major reason that causes the loss of cultural heritages is the problems of

inheritors. Inheritors or tradition bearers play a very important role in the transmission of

Intangible Cultural Heritage. ICH is continued through inheriting and the concept of recreating is

crucial in such lineage. Inheriting cultures is not transporting culture linearly; gains and losses

always exist in such a process (Liu, 2007). Constant recreation is necessary, and people should

aim at “simultaneously fostering [ICH’s] preservation and its constant adaptation to the cultural

evolution of its creators and bearers” (Lenzerini, 2011). In other words, ICH can be interpreted

as a living thing that is changing over time but not losing its central essence. Inheritors must be

able to recreate the culture, reforming it to suit the current society. To summarize, “accumulation

is the result of inheriting, and the center of accumulation is the recreation of the inheritors” (Liu,

2007). If inheritors cannot reform the culture to a level to best adapt to its current environment

while maintaining its originality, the lineage will not survive for long.

In addition to the need for recreation, the lack of potential inheritors is also leading ICH

to a dangerous situation. Recreating cultural heritages is impossible when we cannot find people
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to inherit the heritages. The problem of finding young adults to inherit and practice ICH is

preventing the transmission of ICH. Most people are not aware of the necessity of doing so and

many do not have the chance to get into contact with the cultural heritages. For example, as the

society and country grow, many young adults left villages and small cities to seek working

positions in larger and busier cities (Liu, 2007). This cut off their connections to many cultures,

especially those practiced among minorities in local areas. As technology is getting more and

more advanced, new products are attracting people’s attention and taking their time. We focus

more on social media and other forms of entertainment. As a result, fewer people care about

cultural practices, particularly the ones in oral forms which were used to be entertainments of a

community. At the same time, aging and death of the former successors also brought issues.

Successors with the knowledge and skills of some cultural practices die before they could pass

down everything they knew to the next generation. The decrease in the number of both existing

and future inheritors is bringing cultural heritages near extinction.

Another major factor that influences the transmission of ICH is the characteristic of ICH

itself. Many intangible cultural heritages include rituals and practices that are religion-based.

Under some special social conditions, these practices were restricted. For example, during the

Cultural Revolution in China, rituals related to a belief or religion were interpreted as feudalistic

superstition; practices and performances were suppressed, resulting in some culture loss and

even destruction (Liu, 2006). Even though the situation turned better after the revolution, false

assumptions toward some cultural practices still exist, which indirectly prevented advertising and

inheriting of these cultures. As mentioned in an article on Council and Library and Information

Resources website, some cultures are “not yet in fixed in any medium” and “the complex

character of intangible heritage may account for the slow evolution of public policy mandating or
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encouraging preservation and citizen access” (Ivey). These factors mentioned above are all

influencing the task of safeguarding ICH both implicitly and explicitly.

Research Focus and Research Question

Current research sources point to the fact that protecting intangible cultural heritage is not

simple. It is much more than devoting time to spread the importance and raise public awareness

of cultures. Many other factors prevent ICH’s preservation and inheritance. These challenges are

not possible to be tackled and solved in a short period of time. To promote a better understanding

of younger generations’ attitudes towards ICH, this paper records and interprets the results of the

research conducted. Three research questions guided this research:

1. What are the attitudes of young generations, especially college students, toward safeguarding

ICH?

2. Are college students aware of the existence of ICH and the urgency to protect them?

3. How much do college students know about the factors that are preventing the transmission of

ICH?

Research Method

The research was conducted through surveys and responses were collected online. 10

questions were written for the survey, focusing on the research topic and demographic

information of participants, see Appendix A. The link of the survey was sent on social media

accounts and group chats that most college students use. 25 to 30 responses were expected when

the survey was created, but only 21 responses were actually collected. After getting the result, I

first read through all of the answers, then I organized the answers into different categories to help
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me analyze the data more clearly. For example, I summarized similar answers into a broader

description and recorded data based on this assortment. I also analyzed the demographic

information using a table and constructed pie charts to look at the percentages of different types

of answers.

All of the 21 participants are college students, in the age range from 18 years old to 24

years old. One participant is 17, eleven participants are 19, five participants are 20, two

participants are 21, one participant is 22, and one participant is 24. Below, Graph 1 presents the

age information of participants.

Graph 1, Age ranges of participants.

Number of Students in Different Age Ranges

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
16-18 yeard old 19-20 years old 21-22 years old 23-24 years old

Number of Students

As presented in Table 1, among these 21 participants, 10 students are attending college in

China, 9 students are studying in the United States as international students, 2 students are

studying in Europe: 1 in Germany and 1 in United Kingdom. All participants are from China;

therefore, the research results will mainly apply to their attitudes toward ICH of China and

factors in Chinese society.

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Table 1, Countries where participants are attending college.

China United States Germany United Kingdom
Number of 10 9 1 1
Students

Results of Research

Out of 21 participant, all 21 students (100%) have heard of Intangible Cultural Heritages,

through public benefit TV shows, advertisements on newspaper, or online news articles. Only 10

students (48%) know people who are involved with ICH. For example, these students have

friends who are playing instrument that are listed on ICH list, or know people who are inheriting

other forms of ICH practices. 2 students (9%) are inheritors themselves: the art of calligraphy

and the instrument GuQin. 2 students (9%) have had experiences of participating in events that

spread ICH in the form of conference and lectures. One participant (5%) knows a teacher who is

a member of GuQin association and a local ICH organization. However, no other participant

knew anyone who is officially working for ICH safeguarding organization as a full-time job. The

data collected is organized into the Chart 1 below.

Chart 1, Involvement with ICH

Number of students

43% 48%

9%

Know people who are involved with ICH

Inheritors of cultural practices
None
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One of the survey questions asked if participants believe it is important to protect ICH,

and the responses collected are as follows. 16 out of 21 participants (76%) stated that they think

it is important to protect ICH; 4 participants (19%) think it is not so important to protect ICH in

the current society. 14 participants (67%) stated that they feel they have the responsibility to

protect ICH, and some participants pointed out that they do not have the chance to get more

involved with related work and activities to raise more public attention. This information is

presented in Chart 2.

Chart 2, Students’ responses toward whether it is important to protect ICH.

Numbers of students

5%
19%

76%

Important Not imprtant Don't know

Regarding the question that targets the barriers preventing ICH transmission, answers are

mainly related to the following three categories: lack of potential inheritors, uselessness of

learning some practices in modern society, and difficulty with finding teachers and practice

opportunities. The distribution of data is presented in Chart 3 blow. 4 students (19%) pointed out

that less people are willing to learn cultural practices, and I included these responses under lack

of inheritors category. 5 students (24%) mentioned it is not useful to learn certain heritages in

this fast-moving society. 7 students (33%) said that they are interested in learning new practices

and inheriting cultural heritages, but they do not know where to find teaching resources and it is

hard to practice on a daily basis.

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Chart 3, Barriers preventing ICH transmission.

Number of students

24% 19%

24%
33%

Lack of inheritors Not useful

No resoures Others

Looking at the data collected from the survey, it is surprised to see that all the

participants are aware of the existence of intangible cultural heritage. I think it is true that “the

term ‘intangible cultural heritages’ is ubiquitous in China” (Rees, 2017). Barriers that were

proposed by my participants match what were found in online resources. For example,

participants mentioned the major two factors that prevent the transmission of ICH: lack of

inheritors and the uselessness of some practices. As it was mentioned earlier in the introduction,

this is explained by the unique characteristics of intangible cultural heritages. Practices that were

used to be forms of entertainment are now substituted by other modes. When there are no

platforms for these cultures, there would be no value income for people who practice them.

Therefore, fewer people would choose to inherit these heritages and heritages gradually became

“useless” in current society. These practices need to be recreated into forms that suit local

conditions, for example, tourism systems. This shows the need for recreation and adaptation,

which can bring complementary benefits that facilitate the transmission and usages of ICH. At

the same time, it serves as a way to spread about cultural practices and raise public awareness of

other ICH.
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Another observation from the results is: no participant mentioned the influences of

politics to ICH in the responses, nor the restrictions to some religion-based rituals. I think

younger generations, who have not experienced the Cultural Revolution period or who do not

practice any religion-based rituals that are suppressed by the government, are not aware of the

harms brought to these cultural heritages. This will further decrease young generations’ attention

to these ICH, making them even more difficult to be accepted by the general population, and

eventually going to the extinction of its lineage.

From the results, I can also see that problems still exist regarding the actual inheritance of

ICH. As many responses pointed out, people who are interested in learning about ICH could not

find resources and teachers to learn. This leads to the need for providing more accessible

resources for people who are interested in learning and inheriting ICH. For example, social

events and free public lectures on ICH should be held at local schools and libraries. Furthermore,

the shortage of resources can worsen the issues with lack of inheritors, because this closed the

door upon people who wanted to become inheritors at first.

Conclusion

Younger generations are playing important roles in the process of protecting and

transmitting intangible cultural heritages. Knowing young adults’ attitudes toward safeguarding

ICH can save more heritages from multiple perspectives. This research focused on finding

college students’ attitudes toward ICH. The results showed participants have a fair level of

understanding of ICH and exposed some other problems people should care about when trying to

protect cultural heritages.

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To protect ICH and its transmission, letting more people know ICH’s existence is not

enough. Younger generations should participate more in recognizing their responsibility to

protect these heritages and stop them from going into decline. Opening classes that teach ICH

practices in college or secondary education schools can be a great way to start. There are also

clubs and organizations at universities and high schools about cultures and minorities, such as

the Confucius Institute and Asian Research Centers. Joining such organizations can expand

students’ knowledge and foster their interest in ICH in the future. More resources about ICH

should be provided to potential inheritors through such organizations. Government officials can

visit small villages and countries to provide extra care to heritage successors, helping them to

find younger learners and inheritors. ICH safeguarding should not only focus on future inheritors

but also existing tradition bearers who are striving to pass down the traditions and continue the

lineage.

In addition to addressing the issues with inheritors, government and ICH organizations

should also put more effort in transitioning people’s subconscious thoughts on religion-based

rituals. More research can be done on finding solutions to save some controversial heritages. It is

necessary to deepen people’s intention to inherit ICH and encourage more youngsters to join this

task. I hope through the effort of everyone who cares about ICH and traditional cultures, ICH

will grow better and transmit continuously in the future.

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Reference

China Daily. (2016, December 01). How many Intangible Cultural Heritages does China have. Retrieved

from http://china.chinadaily.com.cn/2016-12/01/content_27539562.htm

Ivey, B. (n.d.). Issues in Intangible Cultural Heritage • CLIR. Retrieved from https://www.clir.org/pubs/r

-eports/pub126/ivey/

Lenzerini, Federico. (2011, February 01). Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Living Culture of Peoples.

Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/22/1/101/436591

Liu, Xicheng. (2006, May 08). The Cultural Character Issues of Intangible Cultural Heritages. Retrieved

from http://www.ihchina.cn/8/11143.html

Liu, Xicheng. (2007, June 12). The Issues with The Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritages. Retrieved

from http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/49157/49165/5852866.html

Rees, Helen. (2017, July 25). Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection in China. Retrieved from http://the

-asiadialogue.com/2017/07/25/intangible-cultural-heritage-protection-in-china/
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Appendix A. Survey questions.

1. Have you heard about intangible cultural heritages? If no, what do you think it is?

2. Are you involved with any activities related to ICH? Or if you are inheriting any ICH practices?

What kind of activities?

3. Do you think it is important to protect ICH? Why and why not?

4. Do you think there is an urgency to safeguard ICH? Why and why not?

5. What could be some barriers that are preventing transmission of ICH?

6. Where are you from?

7. Where do you attend college?

8. What is your age?

9. Do you know anyone who is working for ICH protection and safeguarding? If you do, what

exactly do they do? If not, what type of work do you think it is to safeguard ICH?

10. Do you feel you have the responsibility to safeguard ICH?