***********************************
Following is a question by Dr the Hon Kenneth Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (July 2):
Question:
According to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (the Convention) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), each State Party shall adopt a general policy to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) present in its territory, including (i) establishing dedicated institutions, (ii) fostering relevant scientific and artistic studies as well as research methodologies, (iii) adopting measures to strengthen the training for the managing institutions, and fostering the transmission of such heritage through providing forums and spaces intended for the performance or expression thereof. The Convention also states that each State Party shall provide relevant promotional and educational programmes, in particular capacity-building activities for management and scientific research, aiming at the general public. The Convention was extended to Hong Kong in 2004. In 2009, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) commissioned a local university to conduct a territory-wide survey of ICH in Hong Kong (the survey). Based on the survey results, LCSD has compiled the first ICH inventory of Hong Kong (the inventory), which covered 480 items, and promulgated it in the middle of last month. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government has any plan to make reference to the practice of Macao of enacting the Cultural Heritage Protection Law and adopt the approach of enacting laws to regulate the existing work on the safeguarding of ICH, in order to ensure the sustainability of the policy; if it has such a plan, of the details of the legislative work; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) given that the Secretary for Home Affairs wrote an article in Hong Kong Commercial Daily on June 10 last year pointing out that according to the survey, the holders of several ICH items in Hong Kong are aged persons with no successors, but the authorities have not proposed any corresponding measures to address the problem, save for compiling the inventory and conducting promotional activities:
(a) apart from relying on the subsidies from the Cantonese Opera Development Fund, the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, whether the Government will consider making reference to the practice of the Japanese Government of subsidising the holders/groups of holders of "Important Intangible Cultural Properties", or taking other financial measures to facilitate the transmission of ICH in Hong Kong; and
(b) of the details of the measures to be devised and implemented, as undertaken by the Government, for safeguarding ICH (including the work of identification, documentation, in-depth research, preservation, promotion and transmission of ICH, etc.), and how the authorities intend to solve the aforesaid problem of transmission; and
(3) why the inventory has not included items such as Jeet Kune Do which originated from Hong Kong, Hong Kong-style Cantonese pop songs, Hong Kong comics, as well as over 100 items which are listed as items requiring further research and study in the survey report (provide specific reasons for each item in table form)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the questions raised by Dr Hon Chan is as follows:
(1) The Government all along supports the safeguarding work of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). We will adopt appropriate and effective measures to support the safeguarding of ICH having regard to the actual situation. Drawing reference to the experience in different places, we notice that the approaches to the safeguarding of ICH vary among them. As far as Hong Kong is concerned, the various aspects of safeguarding work including the identification, documentation, research, preservation, promotion, transmission as well as the drawing up of an inventory or representative list of ICH, could be implemented through administrative measures. Taking Cantonese opera as an example, by deploying various administrative measures in the past few years, the Government has implemented a series of work to support the preservation, research, transmission and promotion of Cantonese opera. On the basis of the ICH inventory, we will consult the Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee (ICHAC) on the priority of and specific measures for the safeguarding of ICH.
(2) We attach great importance to the safeguarding of ICH. For the identification and documentation of our ICH, we have completed the territory-wide survey and drawn up the first ICH inventory of Hong Kong (the inventory). We are also planning to launch at the end of this year a preliminary online ICH database, which will provide information on the 480 inventory items for public access. The database will be updated from time to time.
In the area of research, the Government has commissioned the History Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct an oral history research project on the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival and the report is expected to be ready in 2015. The compilation of the Hong Kong volume of the Annal of Chinese Opera and Anthology of Chinese Opera Music undertaken by the Kwan Fong Cultural Research and Development Programme of the Lingnan University is in good progress. The first draft of the manuscripts is expected to be ready within 2014.
For the education and promotion of ICH, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum has introduced the rich array of Hong Kong's ICH to teachers, students and the public through a variety of activities such as international conferences, public talks, workshops, field studies and exhibitions etc. With the efforts made in the past few years, the community has shown greater interest and deeper understanding in our ICH, in particular those items already listed as the world's ICH or the national ICH, such as Cantonese opera, the Tai Hang fire dragon dance, the Tai O dragon boat water parade, the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival and the Yu Lan Ghost Festival of the Hong Kong Chiu Chow community. Safeguarding ICH cannot rely solely on the efforts of the Government. We will encourage the local communities and relevant organisations to take active part in and support the safeguarding work.
Moreover, consideration will be given to selecting items of high cultural value which require urgent preservation from the inventory for more in-depth study and drawing up the first representative list of ICH for Hong Kong. The representative list will provide the Government with a basis for prioritising resources and safeguarding measures (such as in the areas of in-depth research, preservation, promotion and transmission) for ICH items, especially those with high cultural value and require urgent preservation. As the nature, content, situation and manner of transmission of individual ICH items are not quite the same, we have to make detailed analysis in accordance with the characteristics, conditions as well as the information available for the ICH items so as to devise appropriate safeguarding approaches. We will consult the ICHAC on the priority of and specific safeguarding measures for the ICH items. We will also work closely with the relevant groups, organisations and individuals and join hands with them to support the safeguarding of Hong Kong's ICH.
In terms of resources, apart from supporting the development of Cantonese opera through the Cantonese Opera Development Fund etc. and providing funding support to programmes relating to ICH by the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust, we have also provided additional resources to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department initially for strengthening the manpower of their designated ICH team and supporting them to take forward the relevant safeguarding work.
(3) The ICH items in the inventory are drawn up based on the results of the territory-wide survey of ICH items in Hong Kong conducted by the South China Research Center of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (commissioned by the Government). The Government has further drawn reference to the public views collected and consulted the ICHAC to finalise the inventory. According to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (the Convention) adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, ICH refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills - as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith - that communities, groups (or individuals) of the territory recognise as part of their cultural heritage. To qualify as ICH, the item must be transmitted from generation to generation and is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. ICH is manifested in five domains under the Convention: oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the ICH; performing arts; social practices, rituals and festive events; knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; and traditional craftsmanship.
The ICHAC deliberated in detail the criteria for shortlisting surveyed items for inclusion in the inventory and agreed that an item falling within the five domains listed in the Convention and could pass the threshold of being transmitted from generation to generation as well as providing the community and group with a sense of identity and continuity should be included in the ICH inventory.
Items which require follow-up actions and the reasons for not including them in the inventory are set out at the Annex.
Ends/Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:55
NNNN
