Source: Institute of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Written by: Chen Xi
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Prof. Song Junhua, Director of the Institute of Intangible Cultural Heritage at Sun Yat-sen University, was invited to attend the Regional Symposium on the Development of Post-Graduate Degrees Focusing on Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region from November 1st to 4th in Bangkok, Thailand. 
 

Prof. Song Junhua giving a presentation
 

Prof. Song gave a presentation titled “The Postgraduate Education of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China – A Case Study on Sun Yat-sen University”, in which he introduced the experiences and problems of our educational practice on this theme, and proposed that the UNESCO and the universities in the Asia-Pacific region should collaborate and develop the postgraduate program on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and make it sustainable. The proposal was positively responded and discussed by the attendees at the meeting.

The symposium, held by the UNESCO Bangkok, is the first forum with focus on the post-graduate education of intangible cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region. There are about thirty officials, experts and observers from China, Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Iran, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, etc. and from the Headquarters of UNESCO in France, the UNESCO Bangkok, the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (Japan), the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (South Korea). The symposium mainly focuses on how the programs of ICH in the Asia-Pacific Region exhibit the spirits of Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, how to establish the curriculum system, how to facilitate the ICH of communities to be carried on and developed, how to build graduate students’ capability of safeguarding ICH, etc.