Inheritance Study Of Lichuan Flesh-Patting Dance In The Context Of Intangible Heritage

Growing progress has been made in protecting the intangible cultural heritage in China.Over recent years,remarkable achievements have been accomplished by establishing the system of representative list of intangible cultural heritage and the system of representative list of inheritors and by making laws and regulations.But at the same time,we must note that the protection of such heritage is still faced with many problems like imbalance of ecological environment for inheritance,the severe aging and shortage of inheritors,and imperfect legal system.This thesis,based on reviewing the current status of intangible cultural heritage protection in China,takes “Flesh-Patting Dance” in Lichuan,Hubei Province,a representative national-level “non-legacy” project,as a case study,conducts in-depth investigation into and analysis of its cultural connotations,modern inheritance path and external support by means of literature retrieval,fieldwork and interviews,and summarizes its successful inheritance experience with a hope to offer practical reference for the protection of intangible cultural heritage in China.Located in Wuling Mountain with long cultural history and rich minority culture,Lichuan is one of “Hometowns to Chinese Folk Culture and Art” recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.Flesh-Patting Dance is rich in content and shiny although its history is transient.Having benefiting from inheritors Wu Xiufu and Liu Shouhong's bold innovation and solid development and their prime of life,fruitful age,self-adjustment of the program,multiple coexistence,synchronous interaction of inheritance way,and active involvement of all levels of government,news media and local people,Flesh-Patting Dance experienced many transformations and sublimations from outside to inside,from vertical inheritance to horizontal transmission,and achieved nirvana.Nowadays,deeply-rooted in Wuling,Flesh-Patting Dance has become one of the cultural symbols in Lichuan whose cultural influence spreads towards the nation and even the world.From the system of representative inheritors of representative intangible cultural heritage(2007),rescue records of representative inheritors of representative intangible cultural heritage(2015),training program for non-genetic population(2015)to the formal implementation of identification and management of representative inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage(2019),China has been devoted itself to solving problems arising during the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.The program of Flesh-Patting Dance in Lichuan,Hubei Province has attained good achievements,which help break the bottleneck of “art vanishes when the inheritor is dead” caused by aging,fund shortage and imperfect policy and protect the fine local traditional culture with certain pilot function.