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The second Saturday of June has been identified by the Chinese government as 'National Cultural Day' and will be celebrated annually, said Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng in Beijing at a press conference on Thursday.

Sun said the first 'Cultural Heritage Day' would fall on June 10 with the theme being, "Protecting cultural heritage and safeguarding the spiritual homeland".

"The celebration will include a series of performances and exhibitions," Sun said. The event would feature an exhibition of ancient Chinese books and a selection of the best folk art.

The State Administration of Culture Heritage would undertake a nationwide review of cultural heritage protection work while the National Library and Academy of Social Sciences will host seminars and forums and offer advice to the public on cultural heritage.

Sun called on museums, memorial halls and relic sites at all levels to open free to the public on the first ‘Cultural Heritage Day’.

China has 2,351 historic sites and 518 articles of intangible cultural heritage. Nearly 400,000 fixed relics have been registered on the mainland and another 20 million movable examples are held in museums.

Sun noted that China had four of the 19 ‘masterpieces’ of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity listed by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), including the 500-year-old Kunqu Opera, known for its graceful movements and poetic lyrics; the 3,000-year-old guqin seven-string zither; the Twelve Mukams--a 12-part suite of ancient Uygur music and the Pastoral Song sung by a Mongolian ethnic group.

According to Sun the legislation included more than 30 laws and regulations on cultural heritage protection in which the government had invested 7.89 billion yuan (US$900 million) over the last five years. China had also launched a nationwide campaign in 2003 to search out and protect cultural heritage. A law on the protection of intangible cultural relics has been put on the drafting schedule of China's top legislature. People from all walks of life had come to realize its importance.

However, Sun said, cultural relics in China now faced great challenges posed by economic globalization and urbanization. Many historic cities and scenic spots had been destroyed. Illegal trade and smuggling activities had not been curbed which had led to the loss of national treasures overseas.

Worse was that many important cultural heritage sites had declined or were difficult to maintain due to excessive exploration and inappropriate use. And cultural relics held by minority ethnic groups had lost their true meaning due to the changing lifestyles of the people, Sun said.

"Therefore, we should keep our minds clear and take more concrete steps to better protect cultural heritage and mobilize the whole society to participate in this cause," he stressed.

In terms of new measures for preventing traditional Chinese festivals from dying out Sun said, “We need to draw more attention from people in all walks of life by including traditional festivals in school textbooks, improving publicity and encouraging people to celebrate them.”

Sun also mentioned that this month marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of the tumultuous ten-year Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in China. The National Museum, the National Library and other museums had collected a wealth of cultural relics and materials relating to the Cultural Revolution which would be conducive to further research on this period of history, he said.  

Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said at the same conference that according to incomplete statistics about 1 million Chinese cultural relics are kept at more than 200 museums in 47 countries. The Chinese government was doing its utmost to reclaim and collect the precious cultural relics lost overseas and a database to help reclaim such items cultural relics from abroad has been established.

China had signed the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and bilateral protocols with countries including Peru and Italy on this matter. And the government was also seeking international cooperation to retrieve the relics by liaising closely with the International Criminal Police and the World Customs Organizations, Sun said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)