Shanghai protects its (in)tangible treasures

Continuing the fine Shanghaiist tradition of plagiarizing and plundering regurgitating Shanghai Daily stories, we bring you this article:

SHANGHAI named 83 folk arts as its first batch of city-level intangible culture heritage today as part of the city's efforts to protect and promote these "traditional treasures."

The popular "Huju Opera, Lion Dancing, Dough Modeling and the Longhua Temple Fair" can be found on the list, which has 10 categories -- folk music, dances, operas, folk art, acrobatics, handicrafts, medicine and folk customs.

The familiar Nanxiang xiaolongbao from Jiading District is also on the list.

The arts mentioned above are all more or less native to Shanghai or the Jiangnan area, but some of the arts that made the list are not:

"Though some on the list didn't originate in Shanghai, for example, Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera, Shanghai is carrying them forward," said the spokeswoman.

The city provides these immigrant arts with bigger stages and richer contents, she said.

Hmmmm. Are you allowed to do that? Who decides whether or not Shanghai has, or will in the future, continue provide "bigger states and richer contents" for these arts than their native place. Shouldn't the native place have dibs anyway, even if what their practice of those arts currently sucks?

There was a Chinese article about the same thing, though it mentioned the art of the qi pao (旗袍) more prominently. We're not talking about your average cheapo qipao reserved for fat American tourists, but rather works of sartorial splendor: the hand-made and measured ones. In the traditional method of making a qi pao, the body is measured in over thirty difference places in order for the best fit. No wonder those qipao tailors of old Shanghai were always in the mood for love.

On a more tangible note, Xinmin News says that some of Shanghai's old architecture has been placed on a global list of World Monument Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites: :

Shanghai, China's primary economic hub, is once again experiencing a period of remarkable growth. The work of the early Chinese architects is significant historically and architecturally but lacks long-term safeguarding, WMF said.

The other site from China was the Xumishan Buddhist grottoes, which are near Mt. Xumi (duh!)

Photo from chine-informations.com