The Safeguarding Of The Intangible Cultural Heritages Of Martial Arts In Jiangxi Province

This thesis aims to elaborate the urgency and path-improvement of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritages of martial arts in Jiangxi Province,through the lens of Quantang Shideng in Jingganshan City,Zimen Quan in Gao'an City and Nanmiao Martial Arts in Yichun City.Four research methods were employed in the study,namely,literature analysis,case study,semi-structured interview and participant observation.In general,there are four major approaches to safeguard the intangible cultural heritages in China: first-aid conservation;productive conservation;integral conservation and legislative conservation.Establishing on these approaches,the thesis comes up with the following arguments:First,five factors are found to demonstrate that first-aid conservation is required to safeguard the intangible cultural heritages of martial arts in Jiangxi Province,including the weakening teaching ability of the aged inheritors,part of the instruments and skills in practicing these martial arts have lost to the age;part of the martial skills and movements are too complicated to learn,shortage of professional masters and the bondage from the fossil ethos in the rural society of Jiangxi.It argues that digitizing these martial arts looks to be a good solution.Moreover,improving the quality of the digital contents of these martial arts should also be stressed.Second,productive conservation can be conducted in safeguarding the intangible cultural heritages of martial arts in Jiangxi Province for the sake that these martial arts were short of financial support while they are potential to be put into the market.Hence,the thesis suggests that the performing stages for these martial arts should be expanded,and their development should be embedded with other economic sectors,such as tourism and education.Additionally,the thesis also reminds the conflicts between conservation and marketization for these traditional martial arts in order to refrain from excessive commercialization.Third,integral conservation is an essential approach to safeguard the intangible cultural heritages of martial arts in Jiangxi Province on account of the damaged societal and cultural environment for the inheritance of these martial arts,which are undermined by the process of globalization,Olympic education in China,the transformation of production mode,life-style and belief system of the Chinese.To cope with this circumstance,the thesis addresses the significance of protecting thesites,icons,celebrity and rites integrated with these martial arts,so as to represent people's nostalgia and collective memories for the ultimate goal of forming a kind of cultural awareness towards traditional martial arts.Fourth,legislative conservation should be reinforced to safeguard the intangible cultural heritages of martial arts in Jiangxi Province,attributing to the underplayed role of the government and other relevant institutional support.The thesis argues that,rather than waiting for governmental support,the conservation of these marital arts is better to initially tie in with the institutional and cultural development of the nation,for instance,the rural revitalization campaigns,the national cultural renaissance strategies and the globalization of traditional Chinese culture.