Intangible Cultural Heritage, Education and Museums The current relationship between Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), museums and those educational organizations that together play a role in safeguarding ICH, is one that is still evolving. While Asian museums and other public institutions have keenly promoted UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003, both locally and internationally, the focus of their work has, to date, focused principally on documentation, evaluation and listing. Consequently, a coordinated approach to educational issues is an important next step.
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Intangible heritage is by definition people-orientated rather than object-centred. At its core, implementation of the new initiative (the UNESCO Convention, 2003) will transform the relationships between museums and their audiences and stakeholders. Patrick J. Boylan
What is Intangible Cultural Heritage? Intangible cultural heritage is traditional culture, folklore or popular culture that is performed or practiced with close ties to ‘place’ and with little complex technological accompaniment. Put more simply, if tangible heritage assets represent the hard culture of a community, its places and things, then intangible heritage assets represent its soft culture, the people, their traditions and what they know. ICH is defined more formally in the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003, as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage”.
Intangible cultural heritage is transmitted from generation to generation and is dynamic, which means that it is constantly being recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, providing them with a sense of identity and continuity and promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. The UNESCO Convention recognizes five key domains: knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts; social practices, rituals and festive events; performing arts; oral traditions, and; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe. Asia’s Role in the Recognition of ICH Japan was the first country to recognize the value of intangible cultural heritage with its Living Human Treasures Program, which began in 1950. Following legislation
that protected both tangible and intangible heritage, this program allowed ‘living national treasures’ or ‘holders of important intangible cultural properties’ to be identified, either individually or collectively. The Republic of South Korea’s Cultural Properties Protection Act of 1962 catered for a similar category of heritage protection and was enacted in response to the realization that rapid modernization following the Korean Conflict of 1950-53 was resulting in a reduction in interest in traditional skills and crafts. However, these forward-thinking initiatives were, for many years, isolated cases. It was only after half a century of effort worldwide, during which it became increasingly clear to international heritage and cultural management agencies that protection of tangible heritage alone was not enough, that a new category, i.e. that of intangible cultural heritage, was finally identified in the 1970s. In 1989,
it was further promoted by the UNESCO General Conference’s adoption of the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore document. This focused the attention of the world’s decision-makers on the importance of intangible heritage by enabling different groups to assert their cultural identities, thereby allowing humanity to maintain its diversity. In 1999, UNESCO established a listing and award project for intangible heritage, which issued a series of proclamations, Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, honoring the most popular and traditional cultural activities or forms of expression. Both the 1989 Recommendation and the UNESCO Masterpieces project were largely replaced by the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Adopted on 17 October, 2003, by the UNESCO General Conference in Paris and implemented in 2006, it was proposed with the intention of protecting ICH by encouraging an integrated approach, heritage being defined as “traditional, contemporary and living at the same time”, as well as being inclusive (so that individuals might feel part of the same or different communities), representative of cultural elements globally, and community-based. The fact that both Japan and Korea were instrumental in their early promotion of the Convention by holding international conferences immediately after its adoption is, given their early recognizance of ICH, not entirely unexpected. Indeed, Korea has recently established, with the support of UNESCO and national government agencies, the International Information and Networking Centre in Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia Pacific Region (ICHCAP). The Centre’s focus is mainly on the identification and documentation of ICH in the region, to assist partners in their recognition
of specific elements of ICH, and to provide an understanding of the transformation of intangible cultural heritage over time. It also assists in the process of digital archiving. Although a latecomer to the tradition of ICH protection, the People’s Republic of China has also become a strong supporter of the UNESCO 2003 Convention. It currently has nearly 30 entries on the Convention’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and 7 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. China passed its own ICH Protection law on 25 February, 2011, which took effect from June of the same year. The law covers the basic principles of ICH protection, research, identification and transmission, as well as legal responsibilities. What have Museums got to do with it? Concerns about the best way to deal with ICH have largely centered on the debate concerning its intrinsic differences with the conservation of tangible heritage elements such as archaeological sites, artefacts, historic buildings and cultural landscapes. One definition of ICH holds that it is cultural in essence, and that cultures are not merely collections of ‘things’ that can be shown to anyone, bought, sold or commodified. Accordingly, many of the discussions about ICH that concern its essence and care are politically charged and the Convention has received only cautious support from some party states. It is also not as widely endorsed as its sister treaties, UNESCO’s Convention concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972, and the Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, 2005. One reason for its ambivalent reception is that the 2003 Convention does not focus on places or artefacts,
but on the living culture that is embodied in people. As such, despite its reference to existing human rights treaties in its preamble, ethical dilemmas can arise, particularly if there is a chance that these may be unintentionally infringed upon, such as by the Convention’s requirement that ICH elements be listed or recognized. At the time of writing, 144 party states are signatories, with Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom from the Englishspeaking world yet to sign. Following its endorsement by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2004 as part of the Declaration of Seoul on the Intangible Heritage, ICOM has been encouraging its professional membership to update their thinking and skill sets in order to meet the challenges of dealing with non-material heritage and the people behind it. To this end, many Asian museums currently play a key role in implementing the terms of the Convention. For instance, the only academic journal that focuses entirely on intangible heritage, the International Journal of Intangible Heritage, has been published by the National Folk Museum of Korea since 2006. Likewise, the public agency responsible for the implementation of measures within the Hong Kong SAR, China, is the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, located in Shatin. In addition to hosting one international conference on ICH and Local communities in East Asia, it has also expanded its existing oral history programs to include inventories and exhibitions of ICH with the assistance of community and academic resources. Issues for ICH, Museums and Education A different set of issues are raised when the focus moves from documenting/listing to measures for ongoing knowledge transfer and the safeguarding of ICH. Accordingly, as part of their remit as publicly funded
institutions with a clearly defined role in national and local education programs, ICOM and UNESCO (amongst others) have acknowledged that the part museums should play in the ongoing continuance of ICH is just as important as that of documenting/archiving the many aspects of ICH . Knowledge transfer and education programs that use tradition bearers, ‘living treasures’, artists and performers are all important for promoting the continuity of intangible cultural heritage. For example, individuals that employ traditional methods or modes of cultural expression are of increasing interest to schools, especially as many of these people are in developing countries or are part of indigenous groups; as such, they often welcome the opportunity to perform or demonstrate their arts and knowledge to students of all ages as a chance for cultural exchange and a celebration of their survival without aspects of it being trivialized or commercialized. However, the fact that these same people may be authority figures or extremely elderly, as well as the possibility that they do not want to spend their entire time performing or demonstrating to, say, masses of museum visitors, means that a balance of personal respect on the one hand and close coordination with the community on the other needs to be maintained at all times. One management strategy being employed to safeguard this type of intangible heritage is to establish cultural spaces for the transmission of contextual information to visitors (such as cultural centers, music halls, historic precincts, parks or museums) that tradition bearers, performers and artisans can be encouraged to frequent. Such an undertaking provides a number of benefits for the individuals themselves, as well as for the interested public. Moreover, the value of what they do and know is recorded and can be re-affirmed.
A Focus on Hong Kong A recent seminar in Hong Kong on this topic revealed a number of underlying issues concerned with implementing the Convention in terms of education. The main issue for ICH relates to ways of successfully fostering a sustainable educational environment. In particular, the fact that ICH features principally in extracurricular courses within the local education system has resulted in a general disrespect for it among the younger generation. In this sense, institutional change is a fundamental premise of effective ICH education. A few educational initiatives on the part of local artistic communities and universities can be seen as a start towards turning the situation around. For example, the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong has been offering curricular courses in Cantonese Opera for local school students since 2010. A second issue lies in the communication process when ICH is promoted to a wider audience. While Cantonese Opera is again gaining ground in this respect, it is challenging for key parties to integrate it into everyday life and popularize it because of its fine arts nature. Compounding the situation, teachers typically encounter challenges such as school students’ lack of interest in ICH once they graduate from primary school, often as a direct result of peer pressure. A problem can also exist with some teachers’ resistant mindsets towards adopting new methods needed for the teaching of ICH. To make such education more effective, it is necessary to firstly develop a sound infrastructure and a set of creative strategies for its delivery. Teachers then need to learn ways of incorporating the requirements of lifelong learners into their teaching, along with coping with the local,
conventional belief which regards ICH as old-fashioned and unattractive. The third issue associated with ICH education and research is the importance of ensuring interdisciplinarity and multiculturalism. Instead of adopting a nostalgic and retrospective approach which simply regards ICH as something boring and traditional, cultural diversity in the context of ICH education means using ICH as a platform to understand the marginalized, the underprivileged and the peripheral. Understanding the culture behind ICH items is also crucial to mitigating the potential cultural impacts that might cause offense to minority cultural community groups by the institutionalizing of ICH in schools and museums. Museums can play an important role in assisting schools by providing such a context; in the case of Hong Kong, the Heritage Museum has been appointed by the government to institute full measures to safeguard Hong Kong’s ICH under the terms of the Convention. The Way Forward Overall, little has filtered back to UNESCO on the overall success of the Convention in safeguarding ICH under the principles outlined above, largely because implementation has only had six years in which to progress. That being said, it is likely that most of the new initiatives have occurred in Asia, where substantial interest and protection for ICH have been in existence prior to 2006. The challenge now is to bring a large number of diverse stakeholders together to coordinate ongoing measures for knowledge transfer and for appealing education programs that will transform both education and museums. However, such initiatives must be careful not to unintentionally trespass on the privacy or human rights of individuals, the mainstay of this immaterial type of heritage.
References Boylan, P.J. (2006) The Intangible Heritage: A Challenge and an Opportunity for Museums and Museum Professional Training. International Journal of Intangible Heritage 1:54-65. ICHCAP (2011) Introduction. Accessed 15 August 2012: http://www.ichcap.org/en/ichcap/history.jsp ICOM (2004) Seoul Resolution (Declaration) on Intangible Heritage and Museums. Accessed 14 August 2012: http://icom.museum/the-governance/general-assembly/resolutions-adopted-by-icoms-general-assemblies-1946-to-date/seoul2004/ Kurin, R. (2004) Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the 2003 UNESCO Convention: A Critical Appraisal. Museum International. 56 (1-2):66-77. Liu, J. and du Cros, H. (2012) Intangible Cultural Heritage, Education and Museums. RLCCE Focus Issue Seminar 1. Unpublished Report to the UNESCO Observatory for Research in Local Cultures and Creativity in Education, Hong Kong. Liu, T.S. (ed.) (2011) Intangible Cultural Heritage and Local Communities in East Asia. Proceedings of an International Conference in Hong Kong, December 2009. Hong Kong: HKUST and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Logan, B. (2009) Playing the Devil’s Advocate: Protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Infringement of Human Rights. Historic Environment 22(3):14-18. Nishimura, Y. (1994) Changing Concept of Authenticity in the Context of Japanese Conservation History. In Larsen, Knut (ed) 1994 Proceedings of the Nara Conference on Authenticity in relation to the World Heritage Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre (France), Agency for Cultural Affairs (Japan), ICCROM (Italy) and ICOMOS (France):175-84. UNESCO (1999) Interim Report on the Project Concerning the Proclamation by UNESCO of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Paris: Report of the 157th Session of the Executive Board, UNESCO. UNESCO (2006) International Conference on The Safeguarding of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Towards an Integrated Approach. Proceedings of the UNESCO General Conference in Nara, Japan, October, 2004. Japan: UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture, Japan. UNESCO (2012) Intangible Heritage. Accessed 15 August 2012: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.phpURL_ID=34325&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Xinhua News Agency (2011) Intangible Cultural Heritage Law comes into effect (from English website of Xinhua News Agency). Accessed 16 August 2012: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/culture/2011-02/25/c_13750084.html
Acknowledgements Speakers of Focus Issue Seminar: Intangible Cultural Heritage, Education and Museums dated 14 April 2012: Mr. Chau Hing Wah, Curator (ICH), Hong Kong Heritage Museum Dr. Liu Tik Sang, South China Research Centre, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Dr. Jessica Yeung, Associate Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University Dr. Bo Wah Leung, Project Leader, Collaborative Project on Teaching and Learning of Cantonese Opera in primary and secondary schools
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Author: Assistant to Author: Editor: Coordinator:
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