Many Chinese ICHs, which used to be part of everyday life, have seen their societal functions change over China's history, making them more likely to receive protection. Papercuttings decorate windows and Thangka paintings, used by Tibetan priests for worship and meditation in temples, are currently sold as collectable items or tourist souvenirs.

"Production, distribution and sales of ICH products aimed at protection will not only yield inheritors income to support their promotional efforts, but will also offer jobs, spur development of related industries and inject vigor into the national economy," said Zhou Heping, Vice Minister of Culture at the Second International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in June.

Handicrafts from small ethnic groups in remote areas in particular need urgent protection in this way.

"Industrialization pursues low-cost and large-scale production, which is against the nature of handcraft production that has an emphasis on fine and exquisite materials, and excellent techniques," said Xu Yiyi, a researcher at the Nanjing Art Institute, Jiangsu Province. "While industrialization values scale and standards, cultural items demand personal styles and uniqueness."

Purple clay teapots are a fine example of the necessity for craftsmanship over mass production, Xu said. "It is definitely a failure if each teapot rolling off the machine bears the same sculpture and is of the same size and form," he said.

Yunjin brocade refers to colorful cloud-like embroidery. Wang Baolin, Director of the Nanjing Yunjin Research Institute, in an interview with China Comment magazine, pointed out that the craftsmanship of Nanjing Yunjin brocade was successfully added to the UNESCO list because the craft is based on individual masters' imagination and flexible maneuvering. The patterns also could not be replicated by any computer program.

Once mass-production potential is realized, cultural heritage elements cannot avoid being dismantled and reproduced, with those bearing the highest profit possibilities and lowest costs gaining favor over others with dim market prospects.

"This profit-oriented discrimination and dichotomy account for the fact that ICH items such as minority languages and folk literature die much quicker than others," said Feng.

Another school of thoughts maintains that since folk arts came from the people, they should return to them, as this could be the best way to pass cultural heritage down through the generations, according to Cheng Hongbo, curator of Guangrao County's concert hall in Shandong Province. Since 2006, the county has held a culture festival and offered several performances for farmers every year, providing an excellent platform for folk artists, Cheng said.

The 47 village-based troupes in the county offer more than 700 performances each year, generating at least 3 million yuan ($439,240) for performers, he said.

Sun Dongning, a researcher with the ICH research center in Shandong Province, spent two years with 12 colleagues studying the handicraft of Zhoucun Sesame Cake. The team has since proposed a complete plan for the cake's protection and promotion.

The most pressing problem, according to Sun, is the lack of professional researchers as well as practitioners.

"A growing number of officials have realized the importance of protection and are active in applications, but the key to effective protection is detailed and feasible plans based on field trips," Sun said. Some local functions, he noticed, could not organize enough researchers for these trips, leaving research reports or feasible protection plans incomplete.

The 490-resident Zhaocun Village in Guangrao County maintains 21 pieces of complete drum notes, a rarity in the area. Now a city-level ICH item, the Zhaojia drum's youngest inheritor is already 67 years old.

While seniors are adamant about passing down the performance, younger generations are uninterested in learning all the drum notes, because "they cannot make a living by playing the drum and the village cannot even guarantee an annual preservation fund of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($ 293-439)," said Fang Yongli, village Party branch secretary. Fang expects that some day the government will subsidize the folk art.

"It [ICH protection] has a long way to go. It's not right to always associate the folk cultural promotion with tourism and economic development," Sun said.

Cultural fossils

Art heritage should not be adapted randomly for commercial purposes. In addition to that, not all heritage can be produced or performed, such as "living fossils" of Chinese civilization—China's 24 solar terms and traditional rites that are only performed for special occasions, said Qi Qingfu, a professor with Minzu University of China.

"Productive protection and live preservation are, in many cases, too ideal to accomplish," said Guan Xianglin, who in the past two decades has traveled across China to study the folk arts of the country's 55 ethnic groups besides those of the Han.

On his trips, Guan saw more than 10,000 pieces of varied folk artworks and acquired 6,000 minutes of videotape, 70,000 photographs and 46 audio recordings. He also maintained a diary of more than 1.8 million words, making him an expert researcher of Chinese folk arts.

Guan said it was folk artists' living conditions and the fact that these splendid art forms are soon to perish that urged him to finish this mission.

"We can at least leave future generations with a complete record of where they come from, because, I believe, the people will turn back and look for their cultural roots once the social wealth accumulation sets many of them free from the worries of living necessities," Guan said.