(Issued on February 8, 2020 in accordance with Decree No. 171 of the People's Government of Guangzhou Municipality and put into effect on May 1, 2020)

　　Article 1 These measures are formulated in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Intangible Cultural Heritage and other laws and regulations, in the light of the actual situation of this Municipality, and with a view to strengthening the protection of intangible cultural heritage (“ICH”), and inheriting and carrying forward the excellent traditional culture of Guangzhou Municipality.

　　Article 2 These Measures shall be applicable to the activities for investigation, identification, preservation, inheritance, dissemination, utilization and protection of ICH in the administrative area of Guangzhou Municipality, as well as the administrative work related thereto.

　　Article 3 The municipal and district people's governments shall incorporate the protection of ICH into their plans for national economic and social development, and include the funds for the protection of ICH in their respective financial budgets, to ensure the coordinated development of the protection of ICH and the economy and society.

　　The municipal and district people's governments shall establish a coordination mechanism for the protection of ICH and coordinate the handling of relevant matters in the protection of ICH.

　　Article 4 The municipal cultural authority shall be responsible for the protection of ICH within its administrative area and organize the implementation of these Measures.

　　Each district cultural authority shall be responsible for the protection of ICH within its administrative region.

　　Development and reform, industry and information, finance, education, human resources and social security, planning and natural resources, housing and urban-rural construction, commerce, health, ethnics and religion, sports and other relevant departments shall be responsible for the protection of ICH according to their respective responsibilities.

　　Article 5 The municipal or district ICH protection organizations shall appoint full-time personnel to be responsible for the protection of ICH.

　　The protection of ICH in such forms as government purchase of services is encouraged.

　　Article 6 The funds for the protection of ICH shall be used exclusively for their intended purpose and shall be subject to the supervision by the administrative departments of culture, finance and audit.

　　ICH protection funds include ICH subsidies and operating funds.

　　Such subsidies include the subsidies for the representative ICH projects, representative inheritors of ICH, workstation construction, inheritance and research base, cultural ecological protection (experimental) area construction, etc.

　　Operating funds include regular special funds for assessment, publicity, communication, training, consultation, collection, exhibition, development and design, IT construction, etc.

　　Article 7 The municipal cultural authority shall establish a municipal unified ICH information system, and implement whole-process dynamic information management and service for the ICH work throughout the Municipality.

　　Article 8 The municipal department in charge of culture shall establish a municipal ICH expert database and organize experts to carry out ICH-related assessment, consultation, evaluation and recommendation.

　　Each expert included in the municipal ICH expert database shall meet all of the following conditions:

　　(1) He/she is recommended by his/her employer or jointly by more than 3 experts in relevant fields;

　　(2) He/she has engaged in ICH protection or related professional research for at least five (5) years, or has worked in senior professional and technical positions for at least three (3) years;

　　(3) He/she has understood and mastered the current situation and development trend of the industry, has achieved considerable academic attainments or has made remarkable achievements; and

　　(4) Other conditions determined by the municipal department in charge of culture.

　　Each district cultural authority may, when necessary, establish a district-level ICH expert database.

　　Article 9 If an expert is in any of the following circumstances, the competent cultural authority shall remove the expert from the ICH expert database:

　　(1) The expert has made an application for withdrawal;

　　(2) His/her physical condition is not suitable for relevant work;

　　(3) He/she has refused to participate in assessment, consultation, evaluation, recommendation and other related activities three times in a year;

　　(4) He/she has violated the discipline for assessment work;

　　(5) He/she has committed any other violations of law and discipline.

　　Article 10 This Municipality shall implement the directory management system for the representative ICH projects (including endangered projects) and the representative inheritors of ICH.

　　The people's government of the Municipality or a district shall establish a list of representative ICH projects at the corresponding level. The municipal or district cultural authority shall establish a directory of the representative inheritors of ICH at the corresponding level.。

　　Article 11 Representative ICH items shall be applied for hierarchically.

　　A representative ICH item at the municipal or district level shall meet all of the following conditions:

　　(1) It shall be in line with the socialist core values, and plays a positive role in enhancing the cultural identity of the Chinese nation, maintaining national unity and national unity, and promoting social harmony and sustainable development;

　　(2) It has historical, literary, artistic and scientific value;

　　(3) It has more than 100 years of local heritage;

　　(4) It has the characteristics of transmission from generation to generation and living existence;

　　(5) It has distinct national or regional characteristics, and has great influence in the local area.

　　Competent district cultural authorities may recommend any district-level representative ICH projects as municipal-level representative ICH projects.

　　Article 12 The procedures for identifying representative ICH projects shall be subject to the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

　　The representative ICH project assessment experts shall be randomly selected from the relevant fields of the municipal ICH expert database. If a district-level ICH expert database has been established, the competent district cultural authority may randomly select such experts from it.

　　If an assessment expert has a direct interest in the assessed project and its applicant, he/she shall withdraw and the competent cultural authority shall select a new one in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.

　　Article 13 When identifying a representative ICH project, the competent cultural authority shall determine the protection organization responsible for the daily protection of the project.

　　The protection organization for a representative ICH project should have the relatively complete information about the project and the personnel and places to carry out the protection work, formulate and implement specific and feasible protective measures, annual protection plans and protection planning, support the representative inheritors of the project to carry out the inheritance work, and carry out the social communication work for the project.

　　The protection organization for a representative ICH project shall enjoy the following rights:

　　(1) The right to use the name of the representative ICH project;

　　(2) The right to apply for subsidies for representative ICH projects; and

　　(3) The right to recommend the representative inheritors of ICH.

　　Article 14 Cultural authorities shall implement classified protection for representative ICH projects:

　　(1) For the representative ICH projects which have lost their inheritors and whose objective survival conditions have disappeared or basically disappeared, cultural authorities shall implement memory protection, and establish archival repositories by collecting relevant materials and physical objects such as words, pictures, audio and videos;

　　(2) For the representative ICH projects which are on the verge of extinction and difficult in live transmission, cultural authorities shall implement rescue protection, formulate rescue protection plans, give priority to the provision of funds for ICH protection, and adopt technical means to comprehensively, truly and systematically record and sort out the contents, forms of expression and technical process of representative projects and relevant knowledge and skills mastered by representative inheritors, etc.;

　　(3) For traditional skills, traditional fine arts, Lingnan traditional Chinese medicine, and other representative ICH projects with Guangzhou characteristics, cultural authorities shall implement productive protection, and transform ICH and its resources into cultural products and services; and

　　(4) For specific areas where the representative ICH projects are concentrated, with distinctive features and complete form and connotation, cultural authorities shall implement regional overall protection, explore and establish ICH-centered cultural ecological protection areas and the protection support mechanism for them, and incorporate the contents of protection of ICH involving specific space carriers into urban-rural planning according to law.

　　The municipal and district people's governments and their relevant departments shall take measures according to law to protect the endangered raw materials needed for the representative ICH projects, prohibit or restrict the exploitation, collection and hunting of rare minerals, plants, animals and other natural resources closely related to the representative ICH projects, and encourage the cultivation and breeding of natural raw materials needed for the representative ICH projects, or the development, promotion and application of substitutes for related natural raw materials.

　　Article 15 A representative ICH inheritor at the municipal or district level shall meet all of the following conditions:

　　(1) He/she shall master the ICH project imparted to and inherited by him/her well;

　　(2) He/she shall be representative in a specific field and has great influence in a certain region;

　　(3) He/she has actively carried out transmission activities for a long time in the local area, training successors;

　　(4) In case of a municipal-level representative inheritor, he/she has engaged in arts for at least fifteen (15) years; in case of a district-level representative inheritor, he/she has engaged in arts for at least ten (10) years;

　　(5) The inheritance pedigree should not be less than three generations; and

　　(6) Other conditions stipulated by laws and regulations.

　　When a citizen applies to become a representative ICH inheritor, or a citizen, legal person or other organization recommends a representative ICH inheritor, the following materials shall be submitted to the competent cultural authority:

　　(1) The basic information of the applicant or recommended candidate;

　　(2) The inheritance pedigree of the project, and the art learning and inheritance experience of the applicant or recommended candidate;

　　(3) The art characteristics, achievements and relevant materials of the applicant or recommended candidate;

　　(4) The situation of the relevant physical objects and materials in the possession of the applicant or recommended candidate with respect to the project; and

　　(5) Other materials indicating the representativeness of the applicant or recommended candidate.

　　Article 16 The procedure for identifying a representative inheritor shall be subject to the provisions of Article 12 of these Measures.

　　The competent cultural authority shall, on the basis of experts' assessment opinions, draw up a list of representative ICH inheritors, which shall be approved and published after being publicized. The publicity period shall not be less than twenty (20) days.

　　For any representative ICH project that constitutes family legacy, if it has a representative inheritor with the ability of inheritance, in principle, no new representative inheritor will be selected from the family.

　　Article 17 Cultural authorities shall issue annual subsidies to representative ICH inheritors.

　　The annual subsidy rates for representative ICH inheritors at the municipal and district levels shall be formulated by the municipal and district cultural authorities respectively.

　　Article 18 If a representative ICH inheritor is in one of the following circumstances, the competent cultural authority shall disqualify him/her as a representative inheritor:

　　(1) He/she applies to cease to act as a representative inheritor;

　　(2) He/she has lost his/her ability of inheritance due to any objective reasons;

　　(3) He/she has refused to perform the obligation of inheritance without justifiable reasons;

　　(4) He/she is investigated for criminal responsibility;

　　(5) In accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of these Measures, he/she has failed to pass the assessment and thus been ordered by the competent cultural authority to make rectification within a time limit, but he/she refuses to make rectification without justified reasons or his/her rectification, if any, fails to pass the assessment.

　　If a representative ICH inheritor meets the provisions of Items (1) and (2) of the preceding paragraph and is therefore disqualified from being a representative inheritor, but he/she has made outstanding contributions to the protection of ICH, then the competent cultural authority may award him/her the title of honorary inheritor.

　　Article 19 Each cultural authority shall organize experts or appoint a third party every two years to evaluate the protection organizations for representative projects and representative ICH inheritors.

　　If a representative ICH project protection organization fails to pass the evaluation, then the competent cultural authority shall order it to make rectification within a time limit. If it remains unqualified after rectification, the competent cultural authority shall change the protection organization.

　　If a representative ICH inheritor fails to pass the evaluation, then the competent cultural authority shall order him/her to make rectification within a time limit and suspend the payment of the next year's subsidy for the representative inheritor. If, without justifiable reason, he/she fails to make rectification within the time limit, or if he/she remains unqualified after rectification, then he/she shall be disqualified as a representative inheritor.

　　The evaluation standards and procedures shall be separately formulated by the municipal cultural authority.

　　Article 20 The municipal people's government shall set up comprehensive ICH exhibition venues.

　　District people's governments shall set up ICH exhibition venues.

　　Town people's governments and sub-district offices shall gradually set up places for the transmission and learning of ICH.

　　Representative project protection organizations and representative inheritors are encouraged and supported to build exhibition venues and places for transmission and learning.

　　Article 21 Cultural authorities shall, together with relevant departments, focus on supporting and training the representative inheritors and successors of the representative ICH projects that need urgent protection.

　　Education authorities shall organize and carry out ICH education activities, encourage and guide primary and secondary schools to incorporate ICH education into the quality education system, and incorporate ICH-related majors into the urban catalogue of supported specialties.

　　Human resources and social security authorities shall support and guide technical colleges to set up ICH-related majors or courses, so as to cultivate skilled ICH talents.

　　Qualified institutions of higher learning, vocational colleges and technical colleges are encouraged to set up ICH-related majors or courses; students are encouraged to study ICH-related majors, by taking measures such as reducing or waiving tuition fees or offering grants or scholarships.

　　Article 22 During the” Cultural and Natural Heritage Day “and Chinese traditional festivals, the municipal and district People's governments and their competent cultural authorities shall carry out ICH publicity and dissemination activities.

　　Cultural museums, libraries, museums, art galleries and other public cultural institutions, as well as ICH academic research institutions and protection organization, shall, in accordance with their respective business scopes, carry out publicity, display, sorting, research, academic exchanges and other ICH-related activities.

　　Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet and other media shall carry out ICH dissemination activities.

　　ICH publicity and dissemination activities are encouraged to be carried out on public transport vehicles and in waiting areas, parks, green spaces and other public places.

　　Article 23 Representative project protection organizations and representative inheritors are encouraged and supported to carry out cross-regional ICH inheritance and dissemination activities.

　　The integration of ICH in other areas and local culture is encouraged.

　　Article 24 Representative ICH project protection organizations and representative inheritors are encouraged to apply for and protect the intellectual property rights related to such projects, according to law.

　　Article 25 Entities and individuals are encouraged to make rational use of local ICH resources, develop tourism commodities, animation products, film and television works, cultural creative products and other cultural products, and provide viewing, experiencing and other cultural services.

　　Article 26 The establishment of ICH-related social organizations is encouraged and supported to carry out publicity, exhibition, education, dissemination, research, publishing and other ICH-related activities.

　　Citizens, legal persons and other organizations are encouraged and supported to carry out the following ICH protection activities:

　　(1) Setting up social funds for ICH protection;

　　(2) Establishing art museums, exhibition halls and museums to preserve, display and disseminate intangible cultural heritage;

　　(3) Writing and publishing monographs on intangible cultural heritage;

　　(4) Donating intangible cultural heritage materials and objects;

　　(5) Participating in ICH inheritance and dissemination activities through financial support, material support, provision of venues or voluntary services.

　　Article 27 Whoever violates the provisions of these Measures by practicing fraud to apply for a representative ICH project, protection organization or representative inheritor shall be dealt with by the competent cultural authority in accordance with the provisions of Article 44 of the Regulations of Guangdong Province on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

　　Article 28 If any relevant administrative department and their staff violate the provisions of these Measures and fail to perform their duties according to law, they shall be ordered by the competent authorities to make corrections, and the officers in charge and personnel directly responsible shall be given a disciplinary action according to law; if the case constitutes a crime, they shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

　　Article 29 These Measures shall come into force on May 1, 2020