TCM Bids for Intangible Heritage Status
Intangible cultural heritage is a legal concept defined by the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH) of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2003. In order to safeguard the endangered intangible cultural heritage, after conducting lengthy researches and discussions, the UNESCO proposed the concept of intangible cultural heritage and the corresponding protective measures, which has been well received by most of the countries in the world.
The “heritage application” started from 2003
It is understood that since 2003, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) has studied the feasibility in classifying the “heritage application” work of Chinese medicine as a special project and established institutions like “heritage application” committee, expert group and committee office to commence the relevant work. In the first list of the intangible cultural heritage protection issued by the nation in 2006, 9 items of traditional Chinese medicines, being the ninth main category, has been included in the list. This has laid a foundation for seeking world intangible cultural heritage application.
9 items of Chinese medicines have been included in the list of the state-level intangible cultural heritage
The 9 items of Chinese medicines included in the list of the state-level intangible cultural heritage are: TCM life and malady recognition techniques; pulse diagnosis; Chinese pharmacopeia fromulation techniques; TCM traditional medicament preparation techniques; acupuncture and moxibustion; Chinese medicine bonesetting techniques; Tong Ren Tang Chinese medicine culture; Hu Qing Yu Tang Chinese medicine culture; Tibetan medicine (Lhasa's Northern School of Tibetan medicine's mercury cleansing and refining techniques, and the Tibetan pharmacopeia and herbal preparation techniques of Renqen Changjor, Garzê prefecture's Southern School of Tibetan medicine and pharmacopeia).
It has been a long time for Chinese medicine originating from China to spread to the surrounding countries. In order to avoid being overtaken by other countries in seeking cultural heritage application for traditional Chinese medicine, since 2003, the SATCM has engaged UNESCO and started planning to seek world heritage application for traditional Chinese. Subsequently, the Chinese committee of the UNESCO includes China’s Chinese medicine into the 5-year plan of China’s heritage application.
Recently, report about South Korea seeking world intangible cultural heritage for “Korean medicine” has aroused much attention from the public. According to the press spokesman for the SATCM, after the information relating to the “Korean medicine” heritage application was posted in the internet, the SATCM has looked into the case. Currently, there has not been any concrete news about South Korean government seeking intangible cultural heritage for “Korean Medicine”.
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