Enjoying the title of "Hometown of Chinese Carving Arts," Hui'an County in Fujian, China, has issued an initiative to all practitioners in the stone carving industry, calling for the standardization in the use of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) honorific titles and strictly prohibiting the fabrication of non-existent titles such as "ICH master".
According to China’s The Paper, the Hui’an County Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued this initiative with the aim of rectifying irregularities such as impersonating inheritance status, fabricating intangible cultural heritage honors, and unauthorized use of ICH logos for commercial purposes.
The Hui’an cultural tourism bureau stated that in recent years, both online and offline activities in the stone carving industry have been continuously expanding, with the influence and market value of ICH brands on the rise. The qualifications for various ICH representative inheritors, training centers, ICH workshops, and demonstration bases for productive protection are recognized, announced, and recorded by local governments or cultural tourism authorities at various levels. Other organizations have no authority to grant such honors. Practitioners must not use these ICH titles for commercial promotion in either online or offline marketing if they have not received official recognition from the cultural and tourism authorities.
The bureau further stated that officially recognized entities, when conducting publicity, must clearly indicate the recognition level and project name, and must not exaggerate their qualifications or alter information. Fabricating non-existent titles such as “ICH master” is strictly forbidden. The bureau will conduct verification and collect evidence regarding forged qualifications or false publicity; suspected false advertising will be referred to the market regulatory department for investigation, and cases suspected of criminal activity will be transferred to the public security authorities for prosecution.
In the initiative letter, the Hui’an County Bureau emphasized that the “China Intangible Cultural Heritage” logo is a unified official national symbol and is protected by law. Without authorization from the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, it cannot be used for commercial operations. Please do not arbitrarily print or modify this logo on product packaging, store signs, live streaming backgrounds, commercial advertisements, or any for-profit settings. If it must be used for public welfare publicity, it must strictly adhere to the standard design and must not be used for disguised commercial marketing under the guise of public welfare.
The Hui’an cultural tourism bureau called on practitioners to actively cooperate with inspections and rectification efforts concerning irregularities in ICH publicity, to refine their stone carving skills, strictly control product quality, and abandon the practice of seeking attention and engaging in vicious competition through fake ICH gimmicks, thereby jointly fostering a clean and upright industry development environment.
Hui’an County holds the titles of “Hometown of Chinese Carving Arts” and “World Capital of Stone Carving.” The stone carving and stone materials industry is one of Hui’an’s four traditional pillar industries. Hui’an stone carving is a Chinese national intangible cultural heritage. Hui’an is also the country’s largest, most technologically advanced, and most capable base for production and export of stone carving crafts.