Intangible cultural heritage is an important component of China's excellent traditional culture, a vivid witness to the continuous inheritance of Chinese civilization, and an important foundation for connecting national emotions and maintaining national unity. From May to September this year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress inspected the implementation of the Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage. On November 5, the report on inspecting the implementation of the Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage was submitted to the 12th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress for deliberation. The report points out that since the implementation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law in 2011, the State Council and various departments and localities have actively practiced the legislative purpose, conscientiously implemented legal provisions, and taken effective measures to promote the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, achieving significant results. At present, the total amount of intangible cultural heritage resources in China is nearly 870000, with over 100000 representative projects at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels, including 1557 national representative projects (including 3610 sub projects); 43 projects have been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, ranking first in the world. The report on actively promoting legislation related to intangible cultural heritage points out that after years of efforts, China has initially established a relatively systematic and complete legal system for intangible cultural heritage, with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law as the core and relevant laws, regulations, rules, and normative documents as the main support, in line with international rules. People's congresses and governments at all levels actively promote legislation related to intangible cultural heritage, providing strong legal guarantees for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress deliberated and passed the Law on Traditional Chinese Medicine. The State Council revised the Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Arts and Crafts. The relevant departments of the State Council have issued a series of regulations and normative documents. 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government have all issued local regulations on intangible cultural heritage. Many places have enacted special legislation to protect intangible cultural heritage projects with local and ethnic characteristics, while some places are exploring and promoting collaborative legislation. The report on significant achievements in protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage points out that a large number of intangible cultural heritage projects that embody excellent traditional Chinese culture and have historical, literary, artistic, and scientific value have been effectively protected. The system and mechanism of intangible cultural heritage work are continuously improved and perfected, and the concept of intangible cultural heritage protection continues to deepen. The role of intangible cultural heritage in serving the contemporary and benefiting the people is further played. The guarantee and support efforts continue to increase. The State Council has established an inter ministerial joint conference system for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and composed of 20 departments; Since 2011, the central government has allocated a total of 10.354 billion yuan in funds to support the protection and inheritance of national level representative intangible cultural heritage projects; There are currently 2406 intangible cultural heritage protection institutions nationwide. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has established the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, and all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government have established provincial-level intangible cultural heritage protection centers. At the same time, the system for protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage is becoming increasingly sound. China has initially established a list system of representative intangible cultural heritage projects at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels; More than 90000 representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage at the national, provincial, municipal, and county levels have been recognized, including 3068 national representative inheritors. Since 2016, the central government has provided an annual subsidy of 20000 yuan to each national representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage; To promote regional comprehensive protection, China has established 23 national level cultural and ecological protection (experimental) zones and over 210 provincial-level cultural and ecological protection (experimental) zones. In addition, the level of dissemination and popularization of intangible cultural heritage continues to improve, effectively promoting economic and social development. There are still many problems and shortcomings. The report points out that overall, the implementation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law has achieved positive results, providing strong legal guarantees for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. However, there are still some problems and shortcomings in practice. For example, the awareness of performing duties in accordance with the law needs to be strengthened. Some places do not attach enough importance to intangible cultural heritage work. Some places have seen a continuous decline in financial investment related to intangible cultural heritage. In addition, the promotion of legal knowledge is not deep enough, and some representative inheritors are even unaware of the existence of intangible cultural heritage laws. For example, there are still shortcomings in the investigation and record keeping work. At present, there is no unified and complete database for national intangible cultural heritage resources, representative projects at all levels, and representative inheritors. The problem of incomplete and unsystematic records of county-level intangible cultural heritage representative projects and inheritors is quite common. For example, the level of protection for representative projects needs to be improved, and there is an uneven protection situation. The protection status of representative projects of intangible cultural heritage at the national and provincial levels is relatively good, while the protection of representative projects at the city and county levels is relatively weak; The development of projects that can generate economic benefits, such as traditional skills, traditional art, and traditional medicine, is relatively good. The protection of projects in categories such as folk literature, traditional music, and traditional drama needs to be further strengthened. The incomplete system of representative inheritors is also an issue that cannot be ignored. During the inspection, it was found that some intangible cultural heritage projects mainly rely on methods such as mentorship, family style mentorship, and oral transmission, which take a long time and have slow results. They are not widely used in modern production and life, and young people have low enthusiasm for learning. The phenomenon of aging inheritors is more prominent, facing the risk of a lack of successors. In practice, there is still a lack of unified standards for the identification of representative intangible cultural heritage inheritance groups (groups) that require multi person collaboration and group cooperation, and they are still in the stage of local exploration. In view of this, the report puts forward various suggestions and opinions, including raising political stance and ensuring the correct direction of intangible cultural heritage work; Intensify protection efforts and promote the comprehensive implementation of legal responsibilities; Focus on system construction and comprehensively strengthen systematic protection; Strengthen publicity and display, enhance non genetic broadcasting influence; Persist in upholding integrity and innovation, promote rational utilization, integrated development, and so on. The report suggests amending the law to strengthen the protection of the rule of law. It points out that the implementation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law has been more than 13 years and has played an important role in the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. However, with the deepening of the strategy of building a strong cultural country, the current law is no longer suitable for the new situation, new tasks, and new requirements it faces. During the inspection, many places and units have proposed to revise and improve the laws as soon as possible. The report suggests accelerating the revision work. The revision of the Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage has been included in the legislative plan of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress. We should conscientiously sum up experience, highlight the problem orientation, focus on the new situation, new tasks and new requirements, further enhance the pertinence, applicability and operability of the law, and complete this legislative task with high quality and efficiency. At the same time, the State Council and its relevant departments should timely formulate and revise relevant administrative regulations and departmental rules according to the actual needs of intangible cultural heritage work. Local people's congresses and governments should formulate relevant local regulations and government rules based on actual conditions, and intangible cultural heritage industry organizations should deeply promote the construction of rules and regulations in this field. Through joint efforts from all aspects, we will further promote the improvement of the legal system for intangible cultural heritage, comprehensively enhance the level of rule of law, standardization, and institutionalization of intangible cultural heritage work. (New Society)