Circular of the State Council on Strengthening Protection of Cultural Heritages
Circular of the State Council on Strengthening Protection of Cultural Heritages
Circular of the State Council on Strengthening Protection of Cultural Heritages
Guo Fa [2005] No.42
December 22, 2005
The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries, commissions and directly subordinate institutions of the State Council:
China is a country with an ancient civilization and a long history. In the long history, the Chinese nation created rich, colorful, abundant and precious cultural heritages. The Central Committee of CPC and the State Council have all along attached great importance to the work of protection of cultural heritages. With the joint efforts of the whole society, prominent achievements have been made in protecting China's cultural heritages. Meanwhile, we should be clearly aware that presently, the protection of China's cultural heritages faces many problems, and the situation is not optimistic but severe. In order to further strengthen the protection of China's cultural heritages, inherit and carry forward the fine traditional culture of the Chinese nation, propel the construction of an advanced socialist culture, the State Council decides that the second Saturday in June of each year as of 2006 shall be the "Cultural Heritage Day" of China. We hereby give our notice as follows regarding the relevant issues on strengthening the protection of cultural heritages:
I. Fully recognizing the importance and urgency of the protection of cultural heritages.
Cultural heritages include tangible cultural heritages and intangible cultural heritages. Tangible cultural heritages are the cultural relics with historic, artistic and scientific value, including immovable cultural relics such as ancient sites, ancient tombs, ancient architectures, cave temples, stone inscriptions, murals, important historical sites of modern and contemporary times, and typical architectures, movable cultural relics such as the important material objects, artwork, literatures, manuscripts and books in all historic eras; as well as cities (street blocks, villages and towns) of national historical and cultural significance that have prominent and common value in respect of architectural style, well-proportioned layout, or harmony with environmental scene. Intangible cultural heritages shall refer to various manifesting forms of traditional culture which exist in intangible states, are closely related to the lives of the masses, and are handed down from generation to generation, including oral traditions, traditional performance arts, folk activities, rituals and festival ceremonies, folk traditional knowledge and practices on nature and universe, traditional handwork skills, etc., and the cultural space relevant to the abovementioned manifesting forms of traditional culture.
China's cultural heritages contain special spiritual value, modes of thinking and imagination of the Chinese nation, and also embody vitality and creativity of the Chinese nation. They are the crystallization of wisdom of all nations, and the treasure of human beings' civilization. The protection of cultural heritages, and the inheritance of national culture are the links connecting feelings of different nations, the important cultural base for enhancing ethnic solidarity, maintaining national unity and social stability, and the premise of maintaining diversity and creativity of the world culture and promoting the common development of the human being. To strengthen the protection of cultural heritages is a necessary requirement for building an advanced socialist culture, implementing the scientific view of development, and building a harmonious socialist society.
Cultural heritages are non-renewable rare and precious resources. With the acceleration of the trend of economic globalization and the progress of modernization, China's cultural ecology is facing huge changes, and the cultural heritages and their survival environment are seriously threatened. The overall style and features of many cities (street blocks, villages and towns) of national historical and cultural significance, ancient architectures, ancient sites and scenic spots are destroyed. The illegal and criminal activities such as illegal trading in cultural relics, theft and stealthy excavation of ancient sites and ancient tombs, smuggling of cultural relics, have not been effectively stopped in some regions, and a large quantity of rare and precious cultural relics flow abroad.
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