Thu, May 28, 2009
BEIJING, May 27 -- The process of proposing China's Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Jie to be included onto the UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list has proceeded smoothly, Changjiang Daily reports.
The move came four years after South Korea registered a similar festivity at the UN's cultural organization, which then ignited massive debates over the festival's origin between the peoples.
Central Hubei Province is in charge of the application process under preliminary estimation by UNESCO.
Apart from the tradition of old rites which originated in Zigui County and Huangshi City in Hubei Province, festival-related traditions popular in Miluo City, Hunan Province and Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province have also been included in the proposal package submitted to UNESCO last October, according to Zhu Linfei from the provincial administration on intangible heritage protection in Hubei.
These four customs had been listed as the first batch of the national intangible cultural heritages in 2006, Zhu said.
The Dragon Boat festival, originated more than 2,500 years ago and widely known to commemorate patriot poet Qu Yuan (278 BC - 340 BC) in Warring States period, is celebrated annually in many parts of China. People eat Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in reed leaves, and watch dragon boat competitions.
The festival, which falls on the 5th day of the 5th month every year on the Chinese lunar calendar, became a national holiday for the first time last year.
The Chinese government has been urged to step up its application of the Dragon Boat festival particularly after the Gangneung Danoje Festival of South Korea was listed as a UNESCO heritage in 2005. Many Chinese argue this Korean festival was a "cultural robbery" of China.
The Gangneung Danoje Festival, like the Dragon Boat festival, takes place annually in the town of Gangneung and usually begins with the brewing of a sacred liquor. Locals also eat Zongzi during the four-week celebrations.
Korea's success made many Chinese worry about whether the Dragon Boat festival could be accepted by the UNESCO. But experts said it needn't.
An official from the Hubei Intangible Heritage Protection headquarters said in anonymity that they have strong confidence in China's success because although the two celebrations bear some similarities, great differences exist. He also explained the similar programs from different countries can co-exist in the UNESCO list.
Documents in South Korea's application files showed the festival was developed from the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival that transferred to the country some 1,500 years ago.
China's Kunqu Opera, the Art of Guqin, a cord musical instrument with a history of more than 3,000 years, the Art of Muqam, a performance popular in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Mongolian traditional folk Long Song have been so far listed as UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritages.
(Source: CRIENGLISH. com)
