Research & Article

China possesses an extremely rich cultural heritage. The powers of the modern state have sufficed to enable it to assume complete responsibility for the conservation of this heritage. However, China’s economic development has been uneven, growing more strongly in some areas than others. In the western regions, where intangible culture is relatively rich, transport links are slow and economic development has been comparatively sluggish. The predicament facing these areas is that the original objective of creating beneficial conditions for protecting the cultural resources of the national minorities must now be adjusted in response to their environment; moreover modernization has made it impossible to slow down the speed of change or to ward off the fierce onslaught of external cultures. Oral traditions (such as minority national languages), literary heritage (including classics and original documents handwritten in the script of the particular national minority), manual trades (such as architecture and the production of traditional clothing, jewellery and handicrafts), customs, rites, ceremonies, festivals and even eating and drinking habits have all been unable to withstand alteration from their original styles and are in danger of dying out within a very short space of time.