A three-day International Symposium on the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage started on Tuesday in Beijing.

High on the agenda was preservation and policies that would safeguard this kind of heritage in a scientific, comprehensive and systematic way.

"As we continue to apply to UNESCO for recognition of China's diverse cultural treasures ... we should establish China's own list," said Zhou Heping, vice minister of culture.

To date, UNESCO has listed China's Kunqu opera and guqin as "masterpieces of oral and intangible cultural heritage."

"The intangible cultural heritage of different countries and different ethnic groups is the cultural treasure of humanity," said Wang Wenzhang, president of the Chinese Academy of Arts.

Besides Kunqu opera and guqin, a total of 39 different cultural genres such as the Uygur 12 muqum, nanyin, Tibetan drama and some traditional folk crafts have been listed by China's own preservation center, said Li Ke, deputy director of the National Center of Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage?that was set up in Beijing in February 2003.

The center will also give regular training courses on intangible culture preservation.

In 2002, the Chinese Academy of Arts launched a project to identify and preserve intangible cultural heritage, which brought local individual projects into the fold of a national system.

(China Daily November 17, 2004)