Abstract:

There are different approaches to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) around the world. In China, with the theme of "creative transformation and innovative development", the government launched a powerful and dynamic "Productive Protection" campaign, among which, "studying and training scheme for inheritors of ICH" is one of a important policy proposed by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education in 2015. Implementing for 5 years,it has provided training for over 30,000 people. This scheme is designed for "ICH project holders and practitioners",most of them are the inheritors of the authentic ICH skills in the local community,to get extensive study in tertiary institutions with the enriched educational resources to achieve "embedding traditional arts into modern life, promoting modern design into traditional techniques, and facilitating employment and income". In some ways, the program has helped the inheritors of ICH to "strengthen their foundation, broaden their horizons, and increase their knowingness". Meanwhile, it also poses risks to ICH.

The "ICH project holders and practitioners" are, as per the definition in the "Studying and Training Scheme for Inheritors of ICH" issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education of China in 2016, primarily the inheritors of the authentic ICH skills in the local community, and some non-natives who engaged in the productive protection of ICH, such as ICH product designers, ICH commercial promoters, etc. Take “Training class on art & technique heritage and creative design of brocade”in 2019 as an example, 90% of the trainees were skill holders from the ICH community, and the rest were related practitioners in the productive protection of ICH.

Part 1: Researching and analyzing macro data. First of all, analyzing the primary data of the scheme, including the frequency, the duration, and the number of people of each class, as well as the requirements of curriculum construction, to discuss whether this scheme is efficient in imparting knowledge. Secondly, analyzing the methods and principles of class division and student recruitment to evaluate the effectiveness and risk of this scheme. Thirdly, this paper studies the main characteristics of 112 universities involved in this scheme to see whether tertiary education is suitable to step in this geo-cultural development.

Part 2: A case study of the "Training class on art & technique heritage and creative design of brocade" which the author participated in 2019. This class recruited 41 inheritors and practitioners of different kinds of brocade throughout the country to join the five-week intensive study. Firstly, analyzing the proportion and content of the different five curriculum modules, including basic theory, creative design, scientific technology, brand building and fieldwork. Secondly, two surveys were conducted with different questionnaires at the beginning and end of the class to research on the effectiveness of the course, students' learning experience and their knowledge demands. Thirdly, in half a year after the project, revisiting the students of this class to investigate the changes in their ICH production.

Conclusion:
Through the above research and discussion, it is concluded that the " studying and training scheme for inheritors of ICH" has facilitated the promotion of ICH into everyday life in some way. By studying in tertiary institutions, the ICH inheritors have expanded their visions on product design and sales, and intrigued a greater thirst for new knowledge. However, in the process of incentivizing ICH groups to learn foreign knowledge, the effectiveness of knowledge delivery cannot be guaranteed, in the meantime, the scheme does not necessarily contribute to the fundamental role of ICH, which is "providing these communities and groups with a sense of identity and continuity".In the end, the authors believe that, rather than learning in class, providing more opportunities for resource integration and communication would be more applicable for the development of ICH.

Keywords:

Studying and Training, Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Effects, Risks.