The law and the people : towards a people-oriented approach in the Chinese law for the protection of intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

There have been many papers and much research on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) that refer to the development of Chinese ICH protection mechanism. Most of the current studies focus on the legal system and protection mechanism rather than a specific law. This dissertation focuses on the study of Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People’s Republic of China, learning about its characteristics and examining whether the law can protect china’s intangible cultural heritages effectively. This dissertation also examines why the people has not been properly considered in the Law. The main research questions are: how can the Chinese ICH be better protected by the law, and how to achieve top-down meets bottom-up in Chinese ICH law by connecting the ICH law with the people? Most studies on China’s ICH just discuss the defects of the law but have limited research on the resolution of the defects. The dissertation examines the issue of how top-down can meet bottom-up in Chinese ICH law by reviewing the representative inheritors system and the lack of intellectual property protection in the Law.