Chinese artists are planning to build a cultural "gene pool" to protect folk art from extinction.
Experts at the 7th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the 6th National Congress of the Chinese Writers' Association said many types of folk art such as paper cutting and shadow play are disappearing.
A 10-year plan to salvage folk art heritage is about to begin. The goal is to record the folk culture of the country's 56 ethnic groups using words, pictures and sound, said Xinhua news agency.
CDs will be made and data bases for folk art set up with subjects ranging from housing styles to clay sculpture.
Feng Jicai, the initiator of the plan and chairman of the China Folk Artist Association, said it will be the first time China has attempted to record its traditional folk art.
Feng said the salvage might be the last of its kind, because industrialization and modernization are a threat to the existence of traditional folk culture.
He also said the salvage of folk culture dates back to the early 20th century, when it was carried out mainly by individuals.
A salvage on a larger scale started in the 1980s, when Chinese researchers were collecting folklore, songs and adages in more than 2,000 counties.
Feng said Western countries have paid great attention to folk culture. The French Minister of Culture has urged its people to record any art items from churches to spoons.
Traditional Chinese culture has been taken lightly, since many Chinese are not confident about their own culture, Xinhua news agency said.
Meanwhile, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Lu Wei, said that spoken Chinese culture is authentic.
It is a true record of China's social and cultural development, he said.
(eastday.com December 24, 2001)
