China’s emerging legislative and policy framework for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage

This article documents and analyses the Chinese government’s legislative and policy framework for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). It summarises early Chinese ICH protection measures before analysing how systemic ICH legislation and policy frameworks were put into place after China joined the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004. Since then, China has established a multilayered legislative framework for safeguarding ICH, with its capstone national ICH law passed in 2011. China currently embraces a production-based ICH-safeguarding paradigm, and it is implementing several practice-oriented policy initiatives that are discussed in this article. China’s legislative and policy endeavours to safeguard ICH are impressive when compared to most other countries, but they are also hampered by significant challenges that are inherent in its state-centric nature.