Fujian is the only province in China that has intangible heritage on UNESCO’s lists of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. Inscribed on the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage are Nanyin, Mazu belief, and Zhangpu and Zherong paper-cut; on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding are traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges, and watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks, and on the list of the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices is Fujian puppetry practitioners training program.

A practitioner protection system has been basically in place in Fujian to ensure the inheritance of the intangible cultural heritage items. Currently Fujian has 109 practitioners at national level and 552 at provincial level. A four-tier system (i.e. national, provincial, municipal, county/district levels) has been established in Fujian to classify intangible cultural heritage. This system now includes 113 items of national intangible cultural heritage, 353 items of provincial intangible cultural heritage and about 1,300 items of municipal/country intangible cultural heritage.

Quanzhou Nanyin Performance on “Latern Festival and Minnan Culture Week”

Jianyang Woodblock Printing

Watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks

Zherong paper-cut