By Qubumo Bamo

In order to respond to the emergency of the disappearance of the oral and intangible cultural heritage of China, as the first professional enterprise, the Oral Traditions Research Center (OTRC) has been established at Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL) of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on September 16th in Beijing. More than 80 experts, officials, scholars, and graduate students coming from Unesco, governmental departments, institutions, and universities attended the opening ceremony.

As an linguist, Professor Jiang Lansheng, the Deputy President of CASS concluded her keynote speech by giving a briefly high comment on IEL researchers' achievements and contribution to the academy's scholarship, "in the late of 1990s, the academic research committee of CASS decided to launch two key projects entitled 'Database of Ethnic Oral Literature of China', as well as 'Archive of Oral Traditional Texts of Ethnic Groups in China.' As the executive institution, IEL in the fall of 1998 set out the rules for the two nation-wide collections, particularly in regard to oral epics as its first step in operation and the regulation of criteria. A sustainable framework for reconstructing the two archives in conjunction with ongoing digital efforts will have been reinforced by implementing the institutional "Oral Traditions Research Bases" between IEL and local governments of west ethnic regions. To preserve and protect the diversity of oral traditions in China is a systematic project, which can only be modified and revitalized by forceful promotion with a continuously cross-regional cooperation and a greater financial investment.

Mr. Edmond Moukala, the program specialist for culture of UNESCO Office Beijing, delivered his congratulating speech at the opening ceremony, "China has a rich cultural heritage, which is not only the pride of the Chinese people, but also an invaluable treasure for the whole world. The preservation of Chinese oral and intangible heritage (including ethnic oral tradition) is strategic to the development of a global culture. The establishment of Oral Traditions Research Center at the Institute of Ethnic Literature of CASS, marks a new step in the study and preservation of ethnic oral tradition in China, which is under increased pressure from rapid economic and social transition. We are confident that the Research Center will not only act as a guard for China's past 5000 years of civilization, but also play an active role in its evolution and future development. The UNESCO Office Beijing looks forward to working closely together with the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture and CASS in preserving and safeguarding our common heritage. I wish the Center and our collective effort much success."

"Researchers at IEL founded such a research center," Dr. Professor Chao Gejin (Mongolian), the director of the Center said, "aiming at preserving the diversity of oral traditions and verbal arts both of ethnic groups and Han people, we hope to invoke two concerns that lie at the heart of current oral traditional scholarship and practice. The first is methodological, pointing to new ways of preserving and revitalizing diversities of oral heritages in China, moving toward an intercultural discourse through disciplinary practice that highlights collaboration among indigenous people, institutions, and scholars, and engages dialogue over monologue. The second is epistemological, referencing our understandings of the nature of diverse oral traditions, challenging us to reflect on different worlds of knowing and the ways that they're granted authority and legitimacy. Together, these issues invite us to rethink our roles as creators, receivers, presenters, and partners in the production of indigenous knowledge. The multiple domains connecting to oral tradition are the Center's priorities: cultural diversity, identity, pluralism, and local knowledge of the different ethnic groups of China, as well as other subjects that are basic elements for the sustainable development of Chinese ethnic and world cultures in globalization."

As the executive director of the new Center, Dr. Bamo Qubumo, a young scholar from the Yi People explained in details about the forthcoming survey of "Cultural Diversity and Identity of Ethnic Groups in West China and Beyond: How to Protect Oral Traditions Along the Silk Road," sponsored by Unesco and Bureau of International Cooperation and Exchange (BICE), CASS. She said, "having been aware that the impact of globalization and the GO-WEST campaign taking place in western regions of China, scholars who have been devoting to the studies of ethnic literature naturally attached high importance and deep concerns to ethnic oral traditions that are under increased pressure from rapid economic and social transition, especially, threaten by a danger of disappearing. The emergent situation of oral traditions drew experts' attention to inform the government authorities that, in turn, drew UNESCO's attention to the need to support such a survey to promote the protection of the diversity of indigenous and endangered culture, such as the endangered languages, epic singers, ways of speaking, forms of ethnic narratives, and native expressions of local knowledge. "

Three years before, Dr. Professor John Mils Foley, the director of the Center for the Studies in Oral Tradition at University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, has indicated that:

"This is precisely the place where colleagues in China, with its great richness of living oral traditions among minority populations, can assume leadership. Chinese colleagues are in a position to do what no one else in the world can do: to experience, record, and study oral traditions of remarkable diversity on an unmatched scale. If in the coming years the Oral Theory can be tested across the enormous variety of traditions found in multi-ethnic China, the scholarly world will benefit significantly. "

We believe the new Center will have a very central stake in promotion and protection of cultural diversity both for a fuller understanding of ethnic oral traditions in China, and for building up a commonly academic platform to maintain interregional/international discourse in the environment of globalization.