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Appendix 6 - International Music Council

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Situation<br />

and Responses:<br />

A Survey on “<strong>Music</strong> Diversity” in China<br />

General Introduction<br />

China,<br />

a country with a long history and a multitude of ethnic groups, enjoys a<br />

tremendously rich music history of eight thousand years, which has been proved by<br />

discovered evidences. The representative genres and classics of the traditional Chinese<br />

music are the “cultural soul” that dominate and influence the modern spiritual and material<br />

civilization of the Chinese nation.<br />

The<br />

rapid development of the economic globalization has brought overwhelming and<br />

drastic changes in the lifestyle and production mode of the Chinese people. Social and<br />

cultural changes happen around us every moment in every day. Farmers have left the<br />

villages and mountain villagers have walked out of the mountains. They take off their<br />

traditional front opening jackets and put on western suites; they take off their head scarves<br />

and put on ties. They no longer sing at the singing contests of their villages but change their<br />

interests to pop music and Kara ok. All these changes pose strong challenges and big<br />

threats to the Chinese cultural tradition.<br />

“<strong>Music</strong> Diversity” Policy A: Programs of<br />

Rescuing the Chinese National Cultural Heritages<br />

Our<br />

notion is: economic globalization should coexist with multiculturalism. <strong>Music</strong><br />

diversity must be respected and protected. To protect the traditional music culture is the<br />

responsibility of music workers.<br />

In line with this idea, the Chinese Ministry of Culture initiated in 1979 the grand program<br />

of rescuing the ethnic cultural heritage, which is called as “the Great Wall of the Chinese<br />

Culture”.<br />

The<br />

program undertakes the collection, assorting, protection and development of the<br />

Chinese ethnic and folk literature and arts, and the result is the compilation of ten<br />

anthologies books of literature and arts. Among them are Anthology of the Chinese Folk<br />

Songs, Anthology of the Chinese Traditional Operas <strong>Music</strong>, Anthology of the Ethic and<br />

Folk Instrumental <strong>Music</strong> and Anthology of the Chinese Quyi <strong>Music</strong>.<br />

The<br />

program lasts for 26 years and thousands of music workers and culture workers of<br />

different provinces have dedicated themselves earnestly to it. They started from the most<br />

basic “field work” and have accomplished such jobs as collection, assorting, documentation<br />

and recording. To date, most manuscripts have been completed and are ready to be<br />

published successively. These four immense volumes of music are a great contribution to<br />

the rescue work of the Chinese ethnic cultural heritage and are a huge wealth added to the<br />

music treasury of the human race.<br />

Af ter the survey, collection and classification work done by the scholars, experts and the<br />

local art workers, the Chinese cultural heritage is classified into 9 categories. The music<br />

category itself covers 71 items and over 40 national and folk genres.<br />

Another<br />

important project with the purpose of rescuing the ethnic cultural heritage is to<br />

apply for the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” of the<br />

UNESCO. Since 2001, the “Kunqu Opera Art”, the “Guqin Art”, the “Art of Uyghur<br />

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