Research On The Protection Of Folklore Under International Law

As part of traditional knowledge, folklore is the source of modern knowledge. With the development of modern technology, folklore shows tremendous economic, cultural and political values, and has aroused wide attention from the international community. However, in modern society today, the phenomenon that folklore is being infringed upon can be seen everywhere. Considering their own national conditions, some developed countries are not in favor of protecting folklore. Under such circumstances, as the resources of folklore are rich in developing countries, China must deal with this situation. Through discussing international and domestic theories and practices, this paper intends to research the protection of folklore comprehensively.At the very start, this paper explores the meaning and the character of the folklore, put forward the definition of folklore, and tells the differences between folklore and some related concepts. Subsequently, the paper analyses the economical, cultural and political meaning and legitimacy of protecting folklore. On this basis, this paper tells us the efforts of protecting folklore of some international organizations and some countries including both developed and developing countries. Finally, this paper discusses the condition of protecting folklore in China, the efforts China should make, including the examples that foreign countries infringed upon our folklore and how to deal with international disputes.