The Chinese Paper-Cut: From Local Inventories to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

1 IntroductionOn December 2, 2004, China became the sixth country to ratify the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. In 2011, the country held the largest number of elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (29 of a world total of 232) and on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding (7 of 27). This can be seen as another expression of the international cultural “Soft Power” of Chi...