Cultural and Natural Heritage Day | What exactly is this festival?

01 Concept

Cultural heritage encompasses both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Tangible Cultural Heritage: Tangible cultural heritage encompasses immovable cultural relics such as ancient sites, ancient tombs, historic buildings, cave temples, stone carvings, murals, and significant historical sites and representative structures from the modern and contemporary periods; it also includes movable cultural relics, including important physical objects, works of art, documents, manuscripts, and library materials from various historical epochs.

Intangible Cultural Heritage: Intangible Cultural Heritage refers to the various forms of traditional cultural expression—such as folk customs, performing arts, traditional knowledge and skills, as well as related tools, objects, handicrafts, and other tangible manifestations—that have been passed down through generations by different ethnic groups and are closely linked to community life. It also encompasses the cultural spaces associated with these traditions. Primarily transmitted orally, it constitutes a folk cultural and artistic heritage that embodies the historical accumulation of a nation and enjoys broad representativeness.

As early as the 1990s, Feng Jicai, who has long been committed to the preservation of cultural heritage, proposed that China, like several European countries, should designate a “Cultural Heritage Day.” At the Two Sessions in 2004 and 2005, he reiterated this suggestion and submitted a proposal titled “On Recommending That the State Establish a Cultural Heritage Day.”

In July 2005, Zheng Xiaoxie and ten other experts and scholars jointly wrote to the leaders of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, proposing the establishment of a “Cultural Heritage Day” in China. In December 2005, the State Council decided that, beginning in 2006, the second Saturday of June would be designated as China’s “Cultural Heritage Day.” This decision fully demonstrates the Party and the state’s high regard for cultural heritage protection and their strategic foresight, and it helps raise public awareness of the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage and strengthen society-wide consciousness about its preservation.

China is an ancient civilization with a long and illustrious history. Over the course of countless years, the people of all China’s ethnic groups have jointly created a rich cultural heritage—both tangible and intangible. Tangible cultural assets include immovable and movable relics of historical, artistic, and scientific value, as well as historic and culturally significant cities, neighborhoods, towns, and villages. Intangible cultural elements encompass time‑honored oral traditions, traditional performing arts, folk customs, ceremonial festivals, and handcraft techniques. The sheer variety, diversity, and richness of these cultural expressions are rare on the world stage. These cultural legacies of the Chinese nation subtly yet profoundly shape the values and worldviews of its peoples, sustaining the unbroken continuity of five millennia of Chinese civilization through powerful national cohesion and a vibrant, upward‑moving spirit. They constitute the soul of Chinese culture, the root of the national spirit, and a treasured asset that fills China with pride on the global stage. Therefore, they should be cherished as family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation, and further nurtured and enriched for the benefit of all.