ICH is a blend of cultural diversity and the guarantee of sustainable development (The “Istanbul Declaration”). The safeguarding of ICH is the universal will and common concern of mankind (The “Has Protected ICH Joint Pledge”), as well as being of universal significance. It should be carried out through bilateral, sub-regional, regional, and international cooperation, and the communities, groups, and individuals concerned should not be separated from their own ICH (Ethical Principles for the Protection of ICH).

The regional overall protection of ICH refers to respecting regional cultural diversity and complexity in a specific region, adopting effective protection measures from point to surface, and using holistic and systematic thinking to improve the ability of cultural governance, not only focusing on the productive protection and living transmission of ICH projects but also protecting the environment in which they can breed nourishment, implementing protection in a way of “seeing people, seeing things, and seeing life” (Elliott and Schmutz, 2012; Lixinski, 2013; Chen and Ye, 2014; Long, 2014). Delimiting NECPAs is an effective means for the regional overall protection of ICH areas. To preserve the national folk cultural heritage originally in the region and environment to which it belongs, so that ICH and the material cultural heritage associated with it are interdependent and closely related to people’s production and life, besides coexisting in harmony with natural, economic, and social environment and finally making it a “living culture” (Pan, 2008; Tengberg et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2016).

An NECPA refers to a specific area approved by the central government to be established and with the protection of ICH at its core (Hudečková and Ševčíková, 2007; Del Barrio et al., 2012; Rees, 2018). It integrally protects cultural forms with rich historical and cultural accumulations, good survival status, important values, and distinct characteristics. Establishing NECPAs is conducive to the exploration of the overall protection in areas where ICH projects are concentrated and featured and in which form and connotation remain intact (Dans and González, 2018; Zhou et al., 2019). It has also been pioneering work in the regional overall protection of ICH in China in recent years (Figure 2).

China has an ancient civilization with a long history (Table 1). The Chinese nation has created a rich, colorful, and precious cultural heritage and has also always attached great importance to the protection of cultural heritage. In 2001, China submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the first batch of representative works of human oral and intangible heritage, at which point ICH came to public attention. The policy orientation of China is an impetus for the great shift toward ICH protection. To understand better the context of China’s ICH protection, it is necessary to examine the change of ICH protection policies. Table 1 presents the change in policy orientation toward China’s ICH protection since 2004, which directly influenced the process of ICH protection.

In 2004, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH,” which was adopted by the 32nd UNESCO General Conference. In the same year, the Ministry of Culture (now the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China) and the Ministry of Finance decided to carry out the project for protecting Chinese national folk culture. In 2005, the General Office of the State Council published opinions on strengthening the protection of China’s ICH. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture established the National ICH List Assessment Committee, organized the appointment of the first national class of ICH representatives, and conducted a census of ICH. In 2006, measures were formulated for the protection and management of national ICH and the special funds, the National Committee of Experts on the Protection of ICH was established, and the first list of national ICH was published. Since 2007, many other major works have been done, such as printing management measures for issuing marks of China’s ICH, strengthening the protection on time-honored brand ICH, and formulating provisional measures for the recognition and management of representative inheritors of national ICH projects. In 2010, the Ministry of Culture built NECPAs, aiming to protect ICH through regional cooperation. In 2011, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on ICH was approved. In 2012, the Ministry of Culture issued guidance on strengthening productive protection of ICH. In 2018, NECPAs management measures were formally promulgated, the aim being to strengthen ICH regional overall protection.

Against a background of growing globalization, accelerating modernization, and the rapid development of a market economy, China’s cultural ecology is undergoing tremendous changes and increasing impact is being given to ICH. ¹(¹ Opinions on Implementing the Project of Inheritance and Development of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture (2017), Measures for the Management of National Eco-Cultural Protected Areas (2018).) First, some cultural heritage passing on and inheritance depending on oral instruction and rote memory are disappearing, such as various folk arts, techniques, etiquette, festivals, and entertainment. Second, the survival and development of time-honored brands are facing enormous challenges: some time-honored enterprises have weak awareness of intellectual property protection and pay insufficient attention to the protection of inheritors and traditional skills, and the precious traditional skills and management concepts cannot be inherited effectively. Third, in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities with relatively rich cultural relics, the national or regional cultural features are fading away because of the changes in people’s living environments and conditions. There are also other challenges, such as (1) the inheritance of national folk culture is scarce, (2) some traditional skills are on the verge of extinction, (3) a legal system for protecting ethnic and folk cultures is yet to be established, (4) popular awareness of protection is weak, (5) a large number of precious objects and materials of historical and cultural value have been destroyed or lost, and (5) the arbitrary abuse and over-exploitation of ICH occurs from time to time.

In December 2005, the State Council promulgated a law on strengthening ICH protection and made a clear request for regional overall protection in those areas that have rich cultural heritage with relative complete traditional eco-cultural resources. In 2007, the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) for the cultural development of China specified that traditional culture should be given to regional overall protection. The Ministry of Culture officially established the first NECPEA, namely, the Experimental Eco-cultural Protection Area in southern Fujian Province. The work of building NECPEA had been formally carried out in China. From then on, the Ministry of Culture successively approved 21 NECPEAs involving 17 provincial-level regions. At the same time, 146 provincial eco-cultural protection areas were established with reference to the ideas and practices of NECPEAs. In 2010, the “Guidance Opinion on the Construction of National Experimental Eco-cultural Protection Areas” was published, specifying the significance, guidelines, principles, conditions, procedures, and basic measures, among others, for NECPEA construction. In 2011, the “Notice on Strengthening the Overall Planning of National Eco-cultural Protection Areas” was published, stating that each NECPA should have an overall plan to guide the construction work. In the same year, the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on ICH” was formally promulgated and implemented. In Article 26, clear requirements are put forward for the regional overall protection of ICH. From 2011 to 2015, 151 ICH Comprehensive Interpretation Centers were built in 10 NECPAs through financial support of the central government. In 2016, a large number of ICH institutes and traditional craft workstations were built in NECPAs. In 2017, third-party evaluation was introduced for NECPA construction. In recent years, much attention has been paid to the work of NECPA construction. The intention of seeing people, things, and life constitutes the core of NECPA construction.

The Tujia and Miao eco-cultural protection experimental area of the Wuling mountain area (Western Hunan), also known as Xiangxi Pilot Zone, is located in the central hinterland of the Wuling mountain area bordering four provincial-level regions (Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou). Established in May 2010 with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, it is the fifth NECPEA in China and the first to be established in Hunan. The total area of the protection zone is 15,500 km², covering the entire seven counties and the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, with a total population of 2.96 million. The key protection objects are the world cultural heritage of Yongshun Laosi city, the famous historical and cultural cities of Fenghuang ancient city, and the famous historical and cultural towns of Liye, Wangcun, Chadong, and Pushi, and 82 Chinese traditional villages (Figure 3) in the prefecture, 1517 historical and cultural sites of all types, 13 national key cultural relics protection units, 26 national ICH protection directory projects, 351 cultural relics protection units at all levels, 1056 ICHs, 10 national inheritors, and 46 protection areas of various levels and types, with a total area of 289.95 thousand km². In 2015-2019, Xiangxi invested more than 480 million yuan for ICH protection, and built one prefecture-level traditional technology workstation, one national-level production protection base, two participating institutions of China’s research and training program for ICH inheritor, 10 poverty alleviation workshops on ICH, 62 ICH learning centers (institutes) at all levels, and 1567 village-level cultural service centers (Source: http://whhlyt. hunan.gov.cn/whhlyt/news/gzdt/201912/ t20191202_10783079.html).

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Xiangxi Prefecture and the Cultural Department of Hunan Province actively declared the Tujia and Miao eco-cultural protection experimental area of the Wuling mountain area (Western Hunan) and have done much work for the inheritance and protection of Xiangxi regional culture. In 2004, the Xiangxi Prefecture was integrally listed as a pilot area for the “National Ethnic and Folk Culture Protection Project.” In May 2006, the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress (PCSC) of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture deliberated and passed the “Regulations on the Protection of the National Folk Cultural Heritage of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture”, which is the first prefecture-level local protection law in China. On the basis of this regulation, the Xiangxi Prefecture has issued the “Interim Measures for the Protection and Management of the National Folk Cultural Heritage Inheritors in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture”. In view of the good eco-cultural environment of the Tujia and Miao nationalities in Xiangxi, especially the abundant ICH resources and good inheritance, the Tujia and Miao eco-cultural protection experimental area of the Wuling mountain area (Western Hunan) was officially set up in 2010.

Since 2006, the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture has successively issued a number of local documents, such as the “Regulations on the Protection of the National Folk Cultural Heritage of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture,” “Opinions on Xiangxi’s Comprehensive Pilot Work of the Protection Project of Chinese National Folk Culture,” “Interim Measures for the Protection and Management of the National Folk ICH in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture,” “Regulations on Tujia Medicine and Miao Medicine in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture,” and “Notice of the Office of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture on Establishing the Living Inheritance Mechanism of ICH,” constantly increasing efforts to explore the protection of ICH.

In 2006, the “Regulations on the Protection of the National Folk Cultural Heritage of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture” stipulated integrating the protection of national folk cultural heritage into national economic and social development planning and delimiting the national folk native eco-cultural protection area. In 2018, the “Notice of the Office of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture on Establishing the Living Inheritance Mechanism of ICH” further emphasized the establishment of a living inheritance mechanism for ICH with the inheritors at its core and further strengthened the construction of the eco-cultural protection area construction system.

In the national eco-cultural protection area, according to the local conditions, comprehensive ICH exhibition sites should be built, and special museums need to be constructed. Furthermore, according to people’s needs for study and heritance, representative project of learning institutes or sites of ICH at all levels should be established. At the same time, relevant systems and regulations to create conditions and provide support for the representative inheritors of ICH at all levels need to be formulated, aiming to help them to carry out activities of teaching, learning and exchange.

Taking the ICH Museum of the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture as the leader, the county-level ICH comprehensive learning center as the backbone, and the township and village learning institute as the basis, the four-level ICH learning base system covering both urban and rural areas was constructed (Figure 4). On this basis, creatively opening master studios, many ICH inheritors have set up professional teams. At present, there are more than 60 training bases, centers, and institutes of various levels and types in Xiangxi, and more than 2000 person-times of trainings have been carried out. The studio works of Tujia brocade project national inheritor Ye Shuiyun, Tread tiger and chisel flowers project provincial inheritor Yang Guijun, and Miao painting project provincial inheritor Liang Songde, among others, are sought after by major museums and art schools. In 2016, the annual subsidy funds of the national, provincial, and prefecture inheritors had increased to 48,000 yuan, 24,000 yuan, and 12,000 yuan, respectively. As of 2018, in Xiangxi there had been one national ICH productive protection base and 12 prefecture-level ICH productive protection bases, 33 national-level, 93 provincial-level, and 392 prefecture-level representative inheritors, and more than 3000 cultural enterprises of various types. More than 60,000 employees have achieved a cultural industrial output value of 3.513 billion yuan (Huang and Chen, 2018).

In the eco-cultural protection area, key areas should be identified for overall protection. The streets, communities, towns and villages, whose natural eco-environment is basically good with relative complete traditional eco-cultural resources, should be selected as the key areas for overall protection.

In the eight cities and counties across the prefecture, a village with well-protected natural ecology, cultural ecology, and ICH and rich folk customs and cultural resources has been identified respectively as an overall protection pilot village. According to the actual situation of each pilot village, implementation plans with different characteristics should be worked out. In the pilot villages, emphasis is placed on the national traditional festivals and the site selection and construction for learning institutes and productive protection based on advocating the speaking of national languages, the wearing of national costumes and the learning of national customs, safeguarding the eco-environment of clear waters and green mountains, restoring the survival space of ICH, and exploring examples of ICH overall protection (Figure 5). Traditional villages such as Rebala and Shuangfeng are among the pilot villages.

Construction of national eco-cultural protection area should fully respect the dominant position of people. The policy on “protection and rescue first, rational utilization, inheritance and development” of ICH should be implemented. Adhering to the principle of giving priority to protection, living inheritance and protection-based development, keeping pace with the times on the basis of maintaining existing characteristics, and creating the content and form that integrates with reality, should be encouraged, in the construction of national eco-cultural protection area.

With the organic combination of rescue protection and productive protection, the ICH digital protection center has been established (Figure 6). At present, the digital protection of national projects such as Miao drum dance, Tujia brocade skills, Fenghuang paper artwork, Youshui boatmen’s chant, and Tujia Kukiahe has been fully completed. There is now one national ICH productive protection base and 12 state-level ICH productive protection bases in the protection area. With the implementation of the traditional craft revitalization plan as an opportunity, focusing on supporting the upgrading of Tujia brocade skills, Miao silver forging techniques, and Miao embroidery ICH products in Xiangxi, a number of ICH productive protection leading enterprises have been created, and the Xiangxi traditional craft workstation has been jointly established with the well-known domestic clothing brand MOZEN. From 2014 to 2018, Xiangxi received a total of 60.51 million yuan as special funds for cultural and ecological protection areas, more than 14 million yuan for the construction of production protection bases for state-level non-legacy projects, and 3.02 million yuan for non-legacy projects. Besides, the annual budget of the state provides 1.3 million yuan as special funds for the special protection of the legacy, and the budgets of counties and cities arrange about 200,000 yuan as special funds for the protection of the legacy each year (Huang and Chen, 2018).

The construction and management institutions of national eco-cultural protection areas should not only encourage and support the locals to hold traditional cultural activities in accordance with local customs and regulations, but also carry out various forms of tourism activities such as cultural sightseeing tour, cultural experience tour and cultural leisure tour, relying on the unique cultural and ecological resources.

Based on regional proximity, cultural similarity, and resource complementarity, with the aim of building an internationally renowned eco-cultural tourism destination, a cultural diversity and ecological diversity protection demonstration zone, and creating the Xiangxi eco-cultural brand, the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture should firstly strengthen the protection and development of the eco-landscape, historical culture, religious culture, red culture, and folk culture of Xiangxi. Secondly, based on the projects of international eco-cultural tourism and leisure resort, economic and industrial belt, eco-cultural industrial park, infrastructure, eco-cultural landmark, efforts should be made to strengthen regional integrated development of heritage tourism, rural tourism, ancient city and village tourism and other sightseeing experiences, leisure and holiday, and new business products. Therefore, some top-quality tourist routes, such as mysterious Xiangxi, heritage Xiangxi, ecological Xiangxi, creative Xiangxi, red Xiangxi, scientific research Xiangxi, exploring Xiangxi, and slowly living Xiangxi can be forged. Finally, a comprehensive security support system can be perfected in transportation network, tourism distribution network, service system, industrial integration, ecological environmental protection and construction, cultural protection and development and utilization, and institutional mechanisms.

At the same time, by taking national traditional festivals as an important carrier of eco-cultural protection, a comprehensive investigation of the national traditional festivals of the whole prefecture was carried out, and more than 100 traditional festivals were divided into four categories, namely (1) national traditional festivals, (2) traditional folk activities, (3) traditional national sacrifices, and (4) cultural tourism festivals, with 29 basic and conditional national traditional festivals being chosen for support. In the national traditional festival activities, the principle that should adhere to is to let the masses be the protagonists, compiling and performing various types of programs by themselves (Figure 7). From 2014 to 2017, more than 100 various types of national festivals have been held involving more than 400,000 people in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, which are actively developing all kinds of cultural tourism industries so as to promote the protection of ICH.

In the construction of national eco-cultural protection area, keeping pace with the times on the basis of maintaining the existing characteristics, and creating the content and form that integrates with the reality, are encouraged. Based on the advantages of local eco-culture and combined with the development of comprehensive tourism, building regional overall characteristic theme parks is a pioneering work of Xiangxi. Xiangxi is projected to be constructed and managed as a large park as a whole in terms of ecology, culture, tourism, and health and preservation.

The “Development Plan for the Eco-cultural Park of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture” was formulated (Figure 8). It is derived from the ecological and cultural advantages of Xiangxi and is planned to turn the 15,000 km² of territorial land into a regional park. At the same time, many characteristic theme parks have been constructed. The Xiangxi farming culture eco-tourism experience park project is located in Guzhang County of Xiangxi Prefecture. It integrates the original ecological tourism resources with the unique historical and cultural resources of Xiangxi and the abundant farming culture resources in Guzhang. It takes tea gardens as its theme, with farming culture as the main line and agricultural tourism, leisure health, local products, farming, folk culture, and ecological environment as the economic chain. The main contents include farming culture display and experience, local recreation, modern agricultural display, special diet tasting, and tourism service infrastructure and leisure landscape. The “Xiangxi square” pioneer park, aiming at the win-win situation of cultural ecology and tourism industry, is located in the ancient city of Qianzhou in Jishou City. It focuses on the development of national cultural industries, speciality commodity industries, local food and beverage industries, and leisure and entertainment industries, and it gathers classic cultures of Xiangxi, ethnic speciality goods, and master craftsmen. It supports the national ecological economic construction in Xiangxi, and inherits the ICH, and contributes to the eco-cultural tourism industry, thereby achieving a win-win situation.