The Safeguarding and Creative Development of Cultural Heritage: A Comparative Study of China and Africa Experiences

　　Chinese Principle Investigator: Liu Yuejin, Institute of Literature, CASS

　　African Principle Investigator: Ahmed Skounti, Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP), Morocco

　　A brief introduction of the project:

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that "the friendship between nations lies in that among people, and the friendship between people is based upon a heart-to-heart relationship." Cultural heritage, especially intangible cultural heritage, as an important part of it, plays an indispensable role in furthering communication and mutual understanding between countries and people. Africa, like China, is rich in traditional cultural heritage, and many countries there have ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. They have developed abundant experience in the safeguarding of ICH. It is thus of great strategic significance to further strengthen communication and cooperation between China and Africa in the field concerned by taking advantage of the UNESCO’s ICH safeguarding platform. It will not only help to share the experience of the two sides in the safeguarding, the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional culture, and thus jointly deal with new emerged related to the transmission and development of traditional culture, but also lead to deeper mutual understanding and communication, and hence help to form a closer community with shared future for mankind. Based on previous academic accumulation of its members who have long been participating in the concerning practice and research work of UNESCO's ICH safeguarding, and in the perspective of self-conscious cultural comparison, this project will promote in-depth communication between Chinese and Moroccan African scholars in the protection and creative transformation of cultural heritage, promote mutual understanding between the two cultures and mutual reference of protection practice on the basis of full mutual understanding, thus contributing to the protection of ICH in the world from China-Africa experiences. The basic idea of the project is to organize in-depth investigation on the form of mutual visits between the members of the research groups of both sides, to strengthen the intuitive and in-depth understanding of the cultural traditions of the other side by the researchers of both sides, and on this basis to organize academic forums based on in-depth investigation and conscious comparison, and to accumulate experience for future comparative studies of Chinese and African cultural traditions on a wider scale.