HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS BRIEFS

MANCHU LANGUAGE STUDIES DEVELOPED

The Manchu Language and Culture Research Centre, affiliated to Harbin's Heilongjiang University, has accepted its first batch of undergraduates majoring in Manchu language and history, China Daily reported on 14 September 2005. Founded in 1983, the centre is described as China's only academic institution exclusively devoted to Manchu studies, and it now offers four-year undergraduate courses.

Although the Manchus, with a population of 10.5 million, constitute China's third largest ethnic group, after the Han and Zhuang nationalities, the number of Manchu language speakers continues to shrink.

ICOMOS MEETING SLATED FOR OCTOBER IN XI'AN

Dinu Bumbaru, secretary general of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), announced on 4 September in Beijing that Xi'an will host the 15th General Assembly of ICOMOS from 17-21 October 2005. He said that a total of 28 papers on heritage protection written by Chinese scholars will be presented at the meeting. Seminar sessions will be devoted to the protection of large sites, cultural exchange routes, relic sites in built-up cities and underwater archaeology.

REPAIRS COMPLETED ON STUPAS FOR DALAI LAMAS

On 29 August 2005, Xinhua News Agency reported the announcement by Chen Jin, head of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Construction Bureau and deputy-in-charge of historical reconstruction work in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, that restoration work has been completed on the chörten (Tibetan pagoda or stupa) housing the remains of Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (Ngag-dbang Blo-bzang rGya-mtsho), the Fifth Dalai Lama, who ruled in the 17th century. The Fifth was the first chief lama to bear the title Dalai Lama, which was conferred on him by the Shunzhi Emperor, the Qing ruler who was enthroned in Beijing following the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 around the time that the 'Great Fifth' as he is know was rising as the ruler of Tibet.

The chörten is one of eight within the Potala Palace complex in Lhasa housing the remains of Dalai Lamas, beginning with the Fifth. The restoration is part of the second major round of work undertaken at the Potala Palace complex, which began in 2002 and is anticipated to be completed within five years. To coincide with the state celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, the large public square in front of the Potala Palace, created in imitation of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, was refurbished. It now features musical fountains with strobe lighting and landscaped gardens, as well as a large open parade area. It is still called 'Potala Palace Square' (Budala gong guangchang), although the latest changes, along with the increased touristification of the city have led local wags to dub this ancient religious centre 'Lhasa-vegas'.

XI'AN CITY WALL THREATENED

Liu Chuzhang, an official from the Xi'an City Wall Protection Committee, told a press conference on 29 August 2005 that the city wall of Xi'an, constructed in 1374, has developed more than 100 major cracks, and sections are subsiding because of the infiltration of rainwater and the sheer weight of the numerous tourists who perambulated along its parapet battlements. Although the wall has been renovated on three occasions since 1983, the upper sections of the wall may have to be closed to tourists.

RESTORATION OF THE HOMETOWN OF CONFUCIUS

The Qufu Tourist Administration in Shandong announced on 28 August that it was planning to complete a number of restoration projects in advance of the 2556th anniversary of the birth of Confucius, celebrated on 28 September 2005. In 2004, the local government restored a 5,300m wall built in the Ming dynasty and torn down in the 1970s. For this year's celebration, the Qufu authorities are lining both sides of the original entrance of the ancient city compound with stone slabs. They claim that this will recreate the ancient streets of the city, and a park will be established along the city moat, with "archaic lamp poles, pagodas and fences". It should be noted that lamp poles and pagodas did not exist in the time of Confucius.

DIGITAL ARCHIVES TO BE ESTABLISHED

A spokesperson for the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) told a press conference in Beijing on 22 August 2005 that, by the end of this year, China will have established a database for the 1,271 cultural heritage sites under national level protection. The database will include details on the number, location, and general conditions of these sites, in order to facilitate future monitoring and supervision. Digital archives will also be established for the collections of museums across China, according to SACH. More surprisingly, in what will be a massive undertaking, a complete listing of the holdings of all Chinese museums will be published by the end of this year. By 2007, SACH intends to construct a national cultural heritage network to manage and share information on heritage resources.

MAWANGDUI SUFFERS TERMITE INFESTATION

In August, it was reported that the 2,000-year-old Mawangdui tombs in Changsha, Hunan province, have become infested with termites. The termites first appeared about twenty years ago, but the infestation has proliferated of late. The Hunan Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau is reportedly working to eradicate the pests.

ARTS AND CRAFTS APPLY FOR INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE LISTING

In mid August 2005, the Guangdong provincial government announced that it had applied to the central authorities to have 51 arts, crafts and cultural forms recognised by the Chinese government as intangible cultural heritage properties. The list includes Guangdong opera, enamelling, embroidery, ivory carving and various forms of traditional music. This is the first such local initiative aimed at protecting traditional arts and crafts, as well as other items of intangible cultural heritage.

BAN OF PRESENTING STATE-OWNED CULTURAL RELICS AS GIFTS

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued a notice on 8 August prohibiting government bodies from using state-owned cultural relics as gifts. The document also reiterated the ban on state-owned museums and cultural relics management organisations giving away or selling any items from their collections.

LOCAL OPERA GENRES DYING

Henan Daily reported on 7 August that, according to research and a survey being conducted by more than 300 students from Henan University, nearly half of the 65 forms of local opera in that province are dying out. The newspaper attributes their demise to the impact of modern media.

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON GROTTO PROTECTION

More than 300 international and Chinese scholars gathered at a seminar on grotto research and protection, which opened on 26 July 2005 at the Yungang grottoes in Shanxi province. The five-day seminar focused on scientific issues related to grotto preservation, especially the problem of efflorescence and the development of efflorescence-proof materials. However, more general issues related to art history and heritage protection were also discussed in panel sessions. Four Buddhist cave complexes in China—Yungang, Dunhuang, Dazu and Longmen—are listed as World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO.

PROJECT TO PROTECT SALA USA SITE IN INNER MONGOLIA

A protection program is soon to be launched at a cultural relic site dating back at least 70,000 years in Inner Mongolia, the local government announced on 20 July 2005. The program, involving an estimated investment of RMB 96 million yuan, will help protect cultural relics of the middle palaeolithic era at the Sala Usa site. The Sala Usa site, covering an area 34km in length of the Uxin Banner of Ordos City in Inner Mongolia, was discovered in 1922 after a fossilised human tooth was excavated. Under the program, the local government will control soil erosion, build a site museum and relocate over 400 residents around the site in the next five years.

CHINA, UNESCO JOINTLY PROTECT ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Bouchenaki Mounir, assistant director-general of UNESCO, announced in Beijing on 21 July 2005 that China and UNESCO are now jointly working to protect the endangered languages of China. Of the roughly 6,000 languages in the world, according to UNESCO surveys, China's 56 ethnic groups speak more than 70. The Chinese language itself is not endangered, as it is spoken by more than one billion people, but many of its more than one hundred dialects are under threat.

UNESCO and the Chinese government have launched a project in Yunnan province to assist local minority ethnic groups compile textbooks of their languages, and train teaching staff.

TERRACOTTA WARRIORS SAFE FROM WEATHERING

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency on 7 July 2005, Wu Yongqi, director of the Qin Dynasty Terracotta Warriors Museum outside Xi'an, denied recent Chinese media reports which allege that the warriors will have disintegrated within a century as a result of air pollution and mould. He acknowledged that the museum had established a laboratory in 2001 to study the effects of mould and air pollution, but pointed to the success the museum had achieved in developing a technology to preserve the colour paint on many of the figures.

MACAO SUCCESSFUL IN APPLICATION FOR WORLD HERITAGE

It was announced at UNESCO's 29th World Heritage Conference (10-17 July 2005) in Durban, South Africa, that Macao was successful in its bid to have its colonial architectural heritage listed as a World Heritage site. The twenty historical buildings on the list include China's oldest church, a lighthouse and a European-style theatre.

KEY HISTORICAL SITES TO GET ANNUAL FUNDING FOR PROTECTION

Zhang Bai, vice-director of SACH, told a press conference in Beijing on 5 July 2005 that the Ministry of Finance will inject RMB250 million yuan (30 million US dollars) annually into the protection of some key cultural and historical sites. Zhang said that China has more than 400,000 immovable cultural properties, of which nearly 70,000 monuments and sites were under provincial, municipal and county protection, while 1,271 were designated by the State Council as 'Key Cultural Heritage Units' under national protection.

CHINA TO STANDARDISE MINORITY LANGUAGE TRANSLATION

Tibetan scholar Dainzhub Angbon, director of the China Translation Association's Minority Language Translation Commission, told the 11th National Symposium on Minority Language Translation on 4 July 2005 that China intends to introduce a new training and proficiency accreditation system to standardise minority language translation. He stressed that China must apply information technology to minority language development, promote bilingual teaching methods and save endangered languages. It is estimated that China has approximately 300 minority language translation organisations with part-time and full time staff numbers exceeding 100,000. According to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, more than 60 million people from 55 minority populations within China use more than 80 spoken languages and about 40 different scripts.

ORIGINS OF THE NAME TAKLIMAKAN

The Taklimakan Desert, covering 338,000 sq km of Xinjiang, is the world's second largest shifting desert after the Rub al-Khali in Saudi Arabia. The name of this desert was long held to be a corruption of the Uyghur injunction that "if you enter, you will not return" or of the ancient Chinese for "Tocharian kingdom". Many other theories have also been advanced over the years. In an article published in the July 2005 issue of the social sciences and humanities edition of The Journal of Xinjiang University, Qian Boquan of the History Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences dismisses prevailing theories and attempts to establish that the place name means "land of the diversiform-leaved poplar". The first part of the toponym is derived from the name in an early Turkic language for the tree, known by the botanical name Populus diversifolia, that grows on the desert's edges. In modern Uyghur this tree is called toghraq and in Chinese huyang. TThe ending of the desert's name, -makan, is a corruption from the Persian toponym ending, widely used in Central Asia, for "lands" or "a large place".

CHINA TO REVIVE TRADITIONAL FESTIVALS

On 24 June 2005, a circular, jointly issued by the Central Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Culture advised that traditional festivals, such as Spring Festival (or Chinese Lunar New Year), Tomb-sweeping Day (Qingming), Dragon-boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival be "properly observed" out of respect for seniors. The circular is an expression of alarm at the enthusiasm with which young Chinese are embracing the celebration of Christmas and Valentine's Day.