□ Our reporter Zhu Ningning
One of the best ways to preserve ancient buildings is to use it.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage recently issued the "Opinions on Encouraging and Supporting Social Forces to Participate in the Protection and Utilization of Cultural Relics Buildings" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which for the first time issued a policy document on the participation of social forces in the protection and utilization of cultural relics buildings, clarifying the participation of social forces in cultural relics buildings. The guiding ideology, working principles, and participation content, methods and procedures for protection and utilization shall regulate and guide social forces to participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics.
"Encouraging and supporting social forces to participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics is an important part of implementing the relevant deployment requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. It is also an important measure to improve the social participation mechanism and promote the reform of cultural relics protection and utilization and the high-quality development of cultural relics." said the person in charge.
Open low-level cultural relics buildings for rational use
Among the more than 760,000 immovable cultural relics in my country, there are more than 400,000 cultural relics buildings, of which more than 95% are county-level cultural relics protection units and low-level cultural relics buildings that have not been approved and announced as cultural relics protection units.
Such cultural relics are numerous in number, widely distributed, complex in property rights, and difficult to protect and manage.
In addition, some local governments have insufficient investment and weak grass-roots protection and management capabilities. Some cultural relics have been left unattended for a long time, and their daily maintenance is not in place, facing the danger of collapse and disappearance.
Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize the whole society to participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics.
The open utilization of cultural relics is an important direction for the rational utilization of cultural relics.
In 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially issued the "Guidelines for the Opening of Cultural Heritage Buildings" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), encouraging cultural relic buildings to be open to the public in different forms, emphasizing the social and public welfare of the open use of cultural relics buildings, and clarified the cultural relic buildings. General conditions and requirements for open access.
The promulgation of the "Guidelines" provides guidance and approaches for the opening and utilization of cultural relics buildings in various places from the conceptual and technical level.
This "Opinion" clarifies that social forces can participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics in various ways.
Social forces participating in the protection and utilization of cultural relics can participate in the protection and repair of cultural relics, the maintenance of historical features, the development of tourism and cultural creation, and the development of cultural heritage through social welfare funds, full investment, cooperation with the government, etc., in accordance with the requirements of the Guidelines. The whole process of protection and utilization of cultural relics.
Social forces participating in the protection and utilization of cultural relics can obtain management and use rights for a certain period of time, and the longest management and use period is generally not more than 20 years.
During the period of management and use, cultural relics can be used to open public cultural places such as museums, exhibition halls, art galleries, rural bookstores, local cultural halls and special cultural activity centers, as well as tourist and leisure service places such as homestays, inns, and tea houses.
"This move is to promote a large number of low-level cultural relics to be managed, utilized, and benefit from the extensive participation of social forces," the person in charge said.
Participation of social forces needs to be done within one's capacity
In fact, the participation of social forces in the protection and utilization of cultural relics has a long history and is not a new thing.
During the summer vacation, some homestays opened in ancient cultural relics buildings are very popular. It can be said that "one room is hard to find". Not only do you need to book many days in advance, but the price is also very firm. It is also difficult to find a room in a homestay, and the price of a suite is even as high as 10,000 yuan. Many tourists still love it. It is very important that this type of homestay has culture and charm.
"Encouraging social forces to participate in the utilization of cultural relics buildings, and using them as tea houses, inns and homestays, is of great benefit to both cultural relics protection units and the use of cultural relics buildings themselves." Member of the Legal Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Beijing No. 1 Wang Tianxing, deputy director of the Cultural Tourism Law and Regulation Research Center of the Second Foreign Languages Institute, said that the protection of cultural relics requires a lot of money, and it is very unrealistic to rely solely on government investment, especially in many central and western regions where the economy is not well-off.
"Many cultural relics will gradually become abandoned if they are not used for a long time, which is undoubtedly a kind of damage to the cultural relics. After being used, there are special people to take care of and maintain these cultural relics, so that these cultural relics can be preserved for a longer time." Wang Tianxing said , the use of social capital to operate cultural relics protection units can also obtain certain benefits, bringing local taxes and providing some jobs.
This move can be said to benefit many parties, so it should be encouraged and supported.
However, Wang Tianxing also believes that, as a commercial investment behavior, there are certain risks in the business behavior of opening homestays and teahouses in cultural relics buildings. Scientific evaluation should not be based solely on enthusiasm and feelings.
Open cultural relics must have no hidden safety hazards
In addition to the applause, some people in the industry believe that there are still some problems in the specific implementation of the "Opinions" that cannot be avoided.
Judging from the current situation, the experience that can be replicated and promoted has not been obtained in various places, and the protection and utilization of low-level cultural relics buildings are still very prominent. It is urgent to issue relevant policy documents to regulate and guide them.
Taking the protection and utilization of ancient buildings on Gulangyu Island in Xiamen as an example, the introduction of social forces to open them up as homestays is generally successful, but some disputes have not been completely eliminated until now. The fundamental problem is whether social forces have changed the cultural relic buildings after repairing and renovating the cultural relic buildings. The original appearance.
"Using social forces to participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics is mainly to solve some problems such as insufficient investment by local governments, weak grass-roots protection and management, and some cultural relics have been left unattended for a long time, the daily maintenance is not in place, and they are facing the danger of collapse and disappearance. It is the county-level cultural relics protection units and low-level cultural relics buildings that have not yet been approved and announced as cultural relics protection units.” said Hu Bin, member of the Legal Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and executive director of the Cultural and Tourism Legal Research Center of Zhejiang University City College.
According to the "Guidelines", open cultural relics must have no hidden safety hazards, and ancient residential buildings and modern buildings with residential, industrial and commercial functions can be used as small hotels, inns, and homestays under the premise of ensuring safety.
"If the main body already has safety problems and faces collapse, it is not suitable for opening. Once there are safety problems in cultural relics buildings, they must be renovated before they can be opened as tourist places and homestays, which will lead to concerns about repairs. problem." Hu Bin pointed out that the renovation of cultural relics is a very rigorous issue.
The Cultural Relics Protection Law clearly stipulates that the repair of cultural relics protection units must be approved by the corresponding cultural relics department, and must be undertaken by the unit that has obtained the cultural relics protection project qualification certificate.
In this way, the enthusiasm of social forces to participate and the scientificity approved by the cultural relics department will be tested.
Strengthen the supervision of protected and utilized cultural relics
How the cultural relics department strengthens the supervision of social forces' participation in the protection and utilization of cultural relics is also an issue that cannot be ignored.
The "Opinions" clearly require that prior supervision should be strengthened.
In addition to publishing the list of cultural relics buildings that can be protected and utilized by social forces, the "Opinions" also requires the cultural relics department to supervise the owners or users of cultural relics buildings to sign a protection and utilization agreement with the main body of social forces.
Conduct in-the-fact inspections and assessments.
The cultural relics department should conduct regular inspections and evaluations of the project, and urge rectification of any violations of laws and regulations, failure to perform the obligations agreed upon in the agreement, or damage to the safety of cultural relics.
Establish and implement a negative list management system.
The "Opinions" emphasize that the participation of social forces in the protection and utilization of cultural relics should not violate the core socialist values, social order and good customs, not to open private clubs, high-end entertainment venues, not to cause damage to cultural relics, and not to transfer or mortgage or pledge cultural relics. .
For these regulatory measures, Hu Bin believes that the key lies in how to implement them.
First, policies and institutions should be legalized.
Elevate the "Guidelines" to administrative regulations or departmental rules, clarify the conditions for opening up and the existing supervision methods such as directory management and negative list management.
Secondly, it is necessary to refine the standards and give certain guidance to the participation of social forces through standardized means.
Finally, it is necessary to innovate supervision methods, such as digital empowerment, and relying on intelligent technology to carry out supervision.