THE CULTURAL TOURISM AND THE PROTECTION OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
ZHANG Bo1, CHENG Wei2
1. School of Tourism, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China;
2. School of Tourism and Environment Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China
Abstract Culture is the essence of the tourism. With the name of the cultural tourism, the intangible heritage has become the most important and valuable item. In recent years, more and more tourists aren't any longer satisfied with the recreational experiences but go for the different cultural tastes. Therefore, the intangible cultural heritage has become the next goal to be developed for its rich cultural essences and lively cultural features. In the process of developing, these developers don't always care about the identity which is the most important factor for the inheriting of the intangible heritage. The identities of the intangible cultural heritage includes: authenticity, living condition, folkloric character, localization, integrity and humanism. As a result, such developing activities do serious and incurable harm to the intangible heritage. The harmful developing for the heritage should be forbidden, but the moderate and reasonable developing is also good and necessary for the heritage. What kind of developing activities can be called moderate and reasonable? After carefully studying, the writer comes up with his solution about this problem. In writer's opinion: firstly, it is important to know the relationships between the cultural tourism and intangible heritage; and then, it is absolutely necessary to know the identities of the intangible heritage before we drew any conclusion for the protection and the tourism development of the intangible heritage; at last, we can conclude these principles in two points: one is that both the protection and the development are essential, the other is the pursuit of the double-win of protection and development. If we can obey these two basic rules during the developing, we can not only get the sustainable developments and double-win in the protection of the intangible heritage and the cultural tourism, but also keep our national identities in the globalization and benefit the harmonious community building. The intangible cultural heritage is the soul of our inherited culture. It concentrates nation's or group's merit, and shows what they really value. It is the only thing for the nation or the group to differ from others. For that, the nation or the group inherited and cherished it generation after generation. It is precious and irreproducible. China, as a unified and multi-national country with five thousands year's history, creates rich and colorful intangible heritages. These heritages are the essence of our wisdom and culture as well as the foundation to identify our self-confidence and respects. The effort to protect and inherit these valuable heritages is not just the business of the government or the relevant inheritors, but every one of us. Only when all of us regard these heritages as the absolutely necessary part of our life, we can say the heritage is not dangerous at all, and we can protect them well and make them inherit for ever. Only in this way, we can vindicate our cultural dominion, and guarantee the cultural inheritance and safety of ours.
2008, Vol. 23 
