On April 20, 2022, the UNESCO International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (hereinafter referred to as the "Asia-Pacific Center") held the eleventh meeting of the Management Committee in Beijing, which was conducted in a combination of offline and online ways. Zhang Xu, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Center Management Committee, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, presided over the meeting. Wang Chenyang, Director of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Asia-Pacific Center, Wang Fuzhou, Director of the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center and other members of the Management Committee of the Asia-Pacific Center attended the meeting More than 50 representatives from UNESCO International Research Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage and International Information and Network Center attended the meeting. The meeting reviewed and approved the "2021 annual work report", "2022 annual work plan", "medium-term development plan (2022-2026)" and other major issues of the Asia-Pacific Center.
The Asia-Pacific Center is a UNESCO Class II center in the field of intangible cultural heritage. It was established in Beijing, China, in 2012 according to the agreement signed between the Chinese government and UNESCO. Over the past ten years since its establishment and official operation, the Asia-Pacific Center has organized 60 international training sessions under the framework of UNESCO's capacity-building strategy for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, which has trained more than 2100 people, benefiting 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Practice has proved that the enthusiasm of relevant countries, institutions and personnel to learn the relevant knowledge of the international exchange and cooperation mechanism under the framework of the Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) is increasing, and the ability to use the mechanism to serve the protection of intangible cultural heritage in the region is increasing. As the UNESCO Internal Oversight Office pointed out in the 2021 evaluation report on the operation of the Convention, "the work of the Asia-Pacific Center has made an important contribution to the implementation and expansion of UNESCO's capacity-building strategy in relevant regions, and this contribution is particularly important when the resources used by UNESCO to carry out capacity-building are decreasing".
Since the COVID-19 broke out in the world, cross-border on-site training has still not been possible, and the gathering of offline personnel has also been hindered to varying degrees in various places; Online training is affected by epidemic prevention and control in various places, and is full of various uncertain factors; The reform of the relevant mechanisms of the Convention in 2003 is under way. How to accurately grasp and combine the latest strategy of UNESCO to design the training theme and content has become a major issue; The protection and development of intangible cultural heritage in countries in the Asia-Pacific region vary, putting forward more diversified and personalized requirements for training. In order to meet the above challenges, the Asia-Pacific Center, adhering to the spirit of "solving problems through development" and the principle of "results-oriented", on the one hand, pays more attention to design, strengthens exploration, and strives to explore ways and means to improve the effectiveness of training on the basis of overcoming the shortcomings of the online model. At the same time, by strengthening the close tracking and analysis of the relevant policies and measures of UNESCO in the field of intangible cultural property, especially the capacity-building strategy, Strive to improve the effectiveness of capacity-building training.
In the past year, the Asia-Pacific Center has held eight international training sessions for four subregions in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Pacific, and 27 countries in the Asia-Pacific region have benefited from the training. The training courses were carried out under the framework of the Convention around the work priorities and priorities of UNESCO, covering such topics as "joint declaration", "youth and intangible cultural heritage", "intangible cultural heritage and education", "intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development", and "teacher training".
Young people are the key focus of UNESCO. It is of great significance to enhance the cultural mission of the young generation and enhance their ability to protect and inherit intangible cultural heritage for the realization of human sustainable development. The "Follow me to see the intangible cultural heritage" training course is the first phase of the "three-year training plan for youth intangible cultural heritage protection capacity building" planned by the center. Taking into account the various uncertainties brought by the epidemic, the first training course started with training for Chinese youth, and designed a training mode of online teaching and students shooting short videos offline for practice. More than 130 young people from 50 colleges and universities in China participated in the training. After being taught by the trainer with five antennas, the trainees spent five weeks in the community to investigate the intangible cultural heritage project, use the knowledge they learned to shoot short videos, and finally submitted 73 short films of intangible cultural heritage, covering traditional skills, traditional arts, traditional performances and other fields. By recording the intangible cultural heritage projects around them, young people have experienced the charm of intangible cultural heritage in daily life, and thus have taken a solid first step on the way to become the admirers and protectors of intangible cultural heritage.
Building a teacher network has always been an important part and main way for UNESCO to implement the global capacity-building strategy. In 2021, the Asia-Pacific Center held teacher training for the Pacific region and the Philippines respectively. The teacher training course for the Philippines reflects the center's latest exploration of the combination of online and offline. The class will start at the end of 2021. After that, the students will learn relevant knowledge by themselves from February to March 2022. They will gather on the line every other week to show their learning results, discuss their learning experiences, and put forward problems and thoughts encountered in learning. At the end of April, a three-day online centralized training will be held. The combination of offline self-study and online centralized training in a relatively long period of time is not only an exploration of the normalization of the Center's response to epidemic prevention and control, but also an exploration of the international training model of intangible cultural heritage in the future. In addition, the Center also held the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Teacher Training Course" for the Pacific region, which is the first time that the Center has held teacher training for the Pacific region.
In view of the development trend of multinational joint declaration of intangible cultural heritage projects, the Center held a subregional training course on joint declaration of intangible cultural heritage for Southeast Asian countries to strengthen the network construction of joint declaration of Southeast Asian countries and international cooperation around the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and improve the coordination ability of Southeast Asian countries to share heritage and unify diversity. All 11 countries in the region sent representatives to participate in the training.
In 2021, the Center will continue to promote a series of separate training for UNESCO member states. Among them, the Laos class is the first independent training for the country, and also the first phase of the three-year training customized for the country. The center will lay a solid foundation for the protection of intangible cultural heritage in Laos through three years of training. The fourth training course was held for Bangladesh. Since 2018, the Center has provided Bangladesh with a series of trainings covering the topics of performance, inventory preparation, declaration, sustainable development, etc. for four consecutive years, which has played a positive role in improving Bangladesh's overall intangible cultural heritage protection capacity.
Since the global outbreak of the COVID-19, the international training carried out by the Center has been seriously affected, but the Center has been trying to overcome difficulties and actively looking for countermeasures, and the international training work has been uninterrupted. In the past two years, online training has become the main way of the center's work. The center is also trying to overcome the shortcomings of online training, such as virtuality and classroom management difficulties, and make full use of the characteristics of online training to give full play to its advantages. The center is "learning by doing, learning by doing" and "solving problems by development". For example, the training course held for Vietnam was significantly affected by its domestic epidemic prevention and control. Just before the training course was started, a new wave of outbreaks in the country caused the training course to be postponed. After four delays, the course was successfully completed according to the established plan. The training course for workers of China's provincial intangible cultural heritage protection centers, which was originally scheduled to be held during the Chengdu International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival in October 2021, is the first training held by the Asia Pacific Center for provincial intangible cultural heritage protection centers across China, and is also one of the offline theme activities of the festival. However, the upcoming event was postponed due to the need for prevention and control of the COVID-19. The center changed the training to online mode in time. The training combines the characteristics of the trainees, takes four intangible cultural heritage projects listed in the representative list of human intangible cultural heritage as cases, and combines the relevant contents of the Convention, and conducts two and a half days of intensive teaching for the trainees. The attendance rate of the trainees is high, and the exchange and discussion are very relevant and in-depth. The practice has proved that the "short and precise" training, which was rapidly adjusted and carried out according to the characteristics of the student group, has achieved good results, providing a good reference for the center to continue to hold online training in the future.
In 2022, the Center will continue to perform its duties as a second-class center, cooperate with UNESCO's capacity-building strategy, and provide training services under the framework of the Convention to member countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2022, the center plans to hold 10 training courses, including one global course, two regional courses, three subregional courses and three national courses, in the form of combining online and offline. From the perspective of theme content, on the one hand, it continues the established capacity building course of intangible cultural heritage protection of UNESCO, on the other hand, it continues to pay attention to the key content of UNESCO, such as youth groups, teacher training, etc. At the same time, discuss the current development trend of intangible cultural heritage protection in combination with other fields, such as education, climate change, creative industry, digital technology, etc.
The Asia-Pacific Center is further strengthening the tracking and interpretation of UNESCO's strategies, policies and measures related to the protection of intangible cultural heritage by actively participating in international conferences, collecting and collating information on international intangible cultural heritage, updating the Basic Document of the Convention, and other ways to understand and grasp the latest concerns of the development of international intangible cultural heritage and the protection of intangible cultural heritage in the training target countries, and formulating targeted training programs, Relevant contents shall be included in the training course. At the same time, the work of the Center will serve the protection of intangible cultural heritage in more countries through the compilation and printing of communication and publicity materials in Chinese and English, and the publication of training results. In 2022, the Center will promote the publication of the Chinese and English versions of the Convention's Basic Documents and Capacity-building Training Practice, and compile a collection of training results in combination with the series of training conducted for Thailand and Bangladesh for many years.
The Asia-Pacific Center will highlight the characteristics of "innovation", "balance", "inclusive" and "sustainable development" in its medium-term development plan (2022-2026). In terms of innovation, in the context of the continuous development of the Convention, more uncertainty brought by epidemic prevention and control, and more diversified training needs of countries, the Center will strive to carry out more innovative exploration in working methods and models in the next five years; In terms of balance, the Center strives to make more comprehensive consideration and balanced design for the planning of future training work under the framework of capacity-building, especially around the training theme and training objects; In terms of inclusion, the Center's international training work will benefit the entire Asia-Pacific region and more groups, especially small island countries, youth and women groups, on the basis of the previous work; In terms of sustainable development, even in the context of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the Center can continue and remain active, and serve the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage protection in the Asia-Pacific region with sustainable international training.
Zhang Xu spoke highly of the work of the Asia Pacific Center. He said that in the face of the test of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Asia Pacific Center has constantly adjusted its thinking, innovated its working methods and completed various tasks as planned. As a category II center of UNESCO, in recent years, the Asia-Pacific Center has well performed the responsibilities entrusted by UNESCO in accordance with the normative requirements of the category II organization of UNESCO, especially in the organization of international training, with various highlights and remarkable effects, and has been unanimously recognized by all parties concerned, including UNESCO and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. He also said that the global epidemic situation is still severe and complex, which has brought many challenges to the work of the Asia-Pacific Center. He hoped that the Center would make a good response plan, establish a multi-level international cooperation mechanism, continue to promote all work, actively perform its responsibilities as a UNESCO Class II center, further develop work ideas, and form new work highlights, To make new contributions to the implementation of UNESCO's strategy of capacity building for the protection of intangible cultural heritage and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. At the same time, he also said that the Chinese government would also further strengthen its cooperation with UNESCO, continue to support the Asia-Pacific Centre in better performing its functions, and play a more active role in promoting the implementation of the Convention in the Asia-Pacific region and even globally.
Members of the Management Committee and observers agreed that the Asia-Pacific Center had organized many targeted and valuable intangible cultural heritage capacity-building activities during the difficult period of the epidemic, developed a very detailed training plan, adopted an innovative working method of combining online and offline, closely surrounded the new trends and priorities of UNESCO in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, focused on the focus, and insisted on results-oriented, It has spread the positive effect of intangible cultural heritage on the epidemic, and the training effect is obvious to all. It is expected that the Center will continue to promote the implementation of UNESCO's capacity-building strategy in the Asia-Pacific region and make new contributions to the protection of intangible cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.
Wang Chenyang, the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that in 2021, in the context of the normalization of the prevention and control of the COVID-19, the Asia Pacific Center carried out eight international training courses aimed at strengthening capacity building through the combination of online and offline methods, which improved the ability of relevant countries and regions to protect and implement the intangible cultural heritage, made fruitful contributions to UNESCO's global capacity building strategy. The medium-term plan for 2022-2026 developed by the Asia-Pacific Center lays a solid foundation for the better development of the Asia-Pacific Center. He introduced to the participants the progress of the work carried out by the Chinese government in recent years to help the targeted poverty alleviation and integrate the protection of intangible cultural heritage into the national education system, and believed that the Asia-Pacific Center had paid attention to the above key points in the past training centers, and hoped to continue to make contributions to the above areas through international training work in the future.
Wang Fuzhou, China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, affirmed the Asia-Pacific Center's focus on "youth", "ability" and "sustainability" in the past year's training, and continued to work on "high-level" and "improving taste" in the 2022-2026 medium-term plan, and informed the participants of the progress of the construction of the cultural heritage system and the discipline of intangible cultural heritage. It is hoped that the Asia-Pacific Center will improve the training work in combination with this theme and enhance the systematic, targeted and professional nature of the training.
Shimajuli Gurong, head of cultural affairs of the UNESCO Representative Office in China, said that the Asia-Pacific Center was "a good partner" and hoped to continue to strengthen cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Center. She suggested that the Center further summarize its training experience for other countries to understand and reference.
Satoshi Sato, deputy director of the National Agency for Cultural and Financial Affairs of Japan, congratulated the Asia-Pacific Center on its work and progress. She said that although the Center faced many difficulties due to the epidemic, the Center has been making great efforts to use the combination of online and offline training, which has made the training achieve better results and laid a foundation for future training.
Bamotrubumo of the Chinese Folklore Society said that the Center has implemented its capacity-building activities and the objectives of the Convention, including the implementation of the mandate, through innovative working mechanisms. The data in the work report of the Center is detailed, supported by cases, and the facts are very convincing. She particularly appreciated the training on intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development held by the Center for grass-roots cadres in the field of intangible cultural heritage in China, and believed that the training at the national level in China was timely and effective, providing an example for other States parties to cooperate closely with the second category of centers.
Gao Bingzhong, professor of the Higher Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of Beijing Normal University and academic committee, said that he congratulated the Center on maintaining pioneering spirit under the current limited conditions, meeting challenges with innovation, and achieving fruitful results, which was impressive.
Kim Chi Sung, the new director of the Asia-Pacific Center in South Korea, spoke highly of the Asia-Pacific Center's effective international training work led by innovation awareness. He believed that the Center could be regarded as a model in overcoming various difficulties and organizing training. He particularly mentioned that the training on the theme of "Intangible Cultural Heritage and Youth" carried out by the Center is of great significance and has achieved good results. He hoped that the Center would continue to carry out this project for a long time.