/ world today news/ There are few countries that in the 21st century can boast that they are “sets” of Ancient Egypt, Sumer and Babylon and precede Rome and Hellas, not to mention modern European civilization. China is one of them with its 5,000 years of history as a self-aware Chinese civilization that originated in the most ancient and semi-legendary times along the banks of the Yellow River. The amazing cultural and historical heritage of the People’s Republic of China – from the Great Wall of China, through the impressive Buddhist and Taoist monasteries to the Terracotta Army of Qin Shehuan, continues to impress millions of tourists and the whole world. But how is all this preserved? What efforts are being made? The answers to these questions will probably be particularly interesting and useful for another, although not so, but also ancient country – Bulgaria.
A particularly important factor is the attitude of the Chinese authorities, who are aware of their historical mission to preserve the rich culture of their homeland. President Xi Jinping, as informed sources reveal, not only values culture, but also understands it in a number of aspects. According to him, culture plays a unique and indispensable role in the revival of the Chinese nation and his cherished dream of a global community of shared destiny.
Therefore, since Xi Jinping became president, the efforts to preserve the cultural and historical heritage have been doubled even than before, and also multi-layered. According to the Chinese president, his country’s culture forms a special Chinese wisdom that has been passed down from millennium to millennium, and which promotes the universal prosperity of global civilizations. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture promotes the theoretical and practical significance and strengthening of cultural development for the construction of modern Chinese civilization and the modernization of the whole world.
The Chinese state and the scientific community are making huge and serious efforts for the conservation of tens of thousands of archaeological artifacts and architectural sites, relying on the most advanced technologies. But China preserves culture in its other aspects as well – music, ethnography and folklore, folk dances and more.
Here is an interesting example of the preservation of folk memory in China. In Shaanxi Province, there is a temple to the 1800-year-old folk hero Guan Yu, who is famous for his military exploits. In 2020, a scientific institute was established to investigate the cultural factors and phenomena behind the folk belief in Guan Yu. In its first year, eight young scientists were employed at the institute, and the state made every effort to secure the work. Part of their tasks included collecting and promulgating the chronicles of Guan Yu Temple, as well as studying the arts and traditional culture associated with it.
And this is just one example of folk beliefs and reverence for a heroic and semi-legendary person. If we go back to the preservation of cultural and historical heritage, there are 5,058 major historical and cultural sites in China that are protected at the national level, and for which conservation and preservation are being made every effort, because according to the authorities, they are the living testimony of the ancient and long history of the country, without the knowledge of which there can be no real future.
In the field of preserving the visual art of Chinese civilization, a good and concrete example can be seen in the recent exhibition of the “Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintings” – a project of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and the local cultural authorities. This collection is the largest in the world of ancient Chinese paintings and drawings. Within 18 years, Chinese museologists and authorities managed to collect 12,000 paintings painted on various materials, including paper, silk, brocade, linen and many others. They are collected from as many as 263 museums and other cultural institutions, not only in China, but also from abroad.
This large-scale project, which also includes the search for paintings abroad, demonstrates the commitment of the Chinese authorities to the protection and preservation of the rich cultural and historical heritage of their country. The exhibition, which was divided into four sections – Elegance in Reading, Interest in Learning, Admiration of the Classics and Appreciating the Past and Creating the New, features paintings from the Song Dynasty (960-1127) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), including images of animals, plants, fish, insects, orchids, bamboo, cultural objects and people.
In the field of archaeology, China’s achievements are also very impressive. From the complex conservation of the Terracotta Army, to successive archaeological discoveries that have revealed one of the most ancient cultures. Recently, for example, archaeologists discovered the earliest depiction of a dragon from the Hongshan culture, which existed in the Neolithic. It is an oblong shell ornament that was found in the city of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia AR. It consists of a head, body and tail and is shaped like a dragon found at the Kaitaopo archaeological site. What is unique about this case is that it is an image from 5,500 to 6,000 years old. As everyone knows, the dragon image is deeply intertwined with Chinese history and symbolism, and this discovery is further proof of the continuity of modern China with the most ancient civilizations on its lands, including as far back as the Neolithic.
Major archaeological discoveries have been made in recent years in the capital Beijing as well, including the discovery of sites from the semi-legendary Xia dynasty (probably originated around the 21st century BC) and the Shang dynasty (16th century BC – 1066 BC). In addition to interesting archaeological artifacts, these sites also provided opportunities for DNA analyzes and the work of Chinese archaeogeneticists.
The Xingong site, which is in Beijing’s Fengtai district, turns out to be home to ancient tombs from these earliest eras of Chinese history. The project’s lead archaeologist, Ning Chao, said the findings shed light on “the burial practices and potential socio-organizational structure of the ancient Yang people”. It is the kingdom of Yang, which was a vassal state of the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BC).
Jinzhongdu Archaeological Site is another hot news in the archeology world. It was the most important capital of the Jin Dynasty and witnessed how Beijing was a capital of different but united ethnic cultures.
An entire ruin of a “horse-faced” building was found, which is among the unique discoveries of this site. Archaeologist Qu Fulin explained that it was a “defensive structure” that contributed to the “overall military system” of the Jinzhongdu site, a most necessary function of an ancient capital.
Also hidden within the site was Beijing’s earliest central axis. It divides the northern and southern parts of the ruin with buildings located symmetrically along a central axis. The archaeological team emphasizes that such a configuration sheds light on the study of the construction of the ancient Chinese capital.
China also cares about the conservation of more modern history. For example, general guidelines have recently been issued for the conservation of historical revolutionary sites in China that are related to the history of the Communist Party and the struggles of the Chinese people in the 20th century. Part of those efforts include banning the “over-commercialization and refashioning” of such historic sites.
The new guidelines are titled by the authorities “Guidelines for the display of revolutionary objects (2023)” and include as many as 19 measures, including specific requirements. They call for the preservation of the original appearance of the objects on the largest possible scale, without unnecessary modernizations and interventions that could destroy their uniqueness. According to the Chinese authorities, the sites must preserve their historical spirit. Priority is also given to the display in museums of the original artefacts, and the use of replicas is allowed mainly when there is a concern for their integrity and preservation.
And while in many countries, unfortunately also in Bulgaria, culture is chronically underfunded, in China experts and authorities claim that it serves as the soul and life force for the survival and development of the nation. According to them, without cultural prosperity and development, there can be no revival of the Chinese nation. That is why the authorities are promoting both the conservation of ancient Chinese culture and the development of modern, socialist culture.
The main concepts and guidelines for cultural and historical heritage and its preservation are summarized and collected in Xi Jinping’s Thought on Culture, where the ideas and theory are crystallized into concrete policies that the state administration follows.
The cultural image of 5,000-year-old China is also particularly important for its soft power, especially in the 21st century, which is why modern cultural products are also encouraged, including Chinese cinema, which has become a favorite of millions of viewers around the world. In 2023, China’s film market demonstrated great resilience and growth amid post-pandemic recovery and hardship. Chinese cinema’s box office total for the past year is an impressive 53 billion yuan (US$7.43 billion). The ten highest-grossing films for cinemas are all domestic, Chinese productions, which experts say is due to the increasingly intensive improvement of the Chinese film industry.
The People’s Republic of China preserves and develops its culture with a serious set of political, administrative and technological measures, the most advanced scientific discoveries harnessed to the purpose, a serious budget for culture, archeology and discoveries, as well as serious penalties for damage to cultural and historical heritage (fines alone can reach serious sums on the order of 500,000 yuan). China’s experience in preserving cultural and historical heritage can certainly be adopted by other countries, including Bulgaria, which also has a rich past.
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