Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and Cultural Tourism

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage entered into force in 2006. There exist some valuable models for this convention; however, the implementation of the convention faces some difficulties resulting from the nature of Intangible culture heritage. This essay, therefore, aims at pointing at some such of problematic issues present in the preservation and promotion of intangible heritage. In doing so, the Chinese Taoist (Daoqing) shadow theatre is chosen as a case study and the difficulty in protecting this unique example of Chinese performing art is to be discussed. The essay analyses the characteristics, problems and current status of Taoist shadow theatre. The relation between cultural tourism and safeguarding intangible heritage will be also discussed.