Vice Minister of Culture Zhou Heping are delivering speech at the opening ceremony of a forum of 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

"The State Council is developing the declaration and appraisal work of the third batch of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) inheritors, and the result is expected to make public debut on June 13. According to the initial data, the amount arrives at 700-plus people."

Vice Minister of Culture Zhou Heping said at a forum of 2010 Shanghai World Expo themed as "Heritage Protection and Cultural Inheritance of Shanghai Gate" on the morning of May 17.

Zhou expressed that, at the beginning of the year 2005, the General Office of the State Council issued Opinions on Boosting the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritages. And at the end of the same year, the State Council released Notice on Enhancing Cultural Heritage Protection.

Those two significant official documents lay foundation for China's ICH protection cause, Zhou added.

Vice Minister also said, in recent years, China has launched large-scaled censuses on ICHs, and has gained fruitful results. Two batches of national ICH items totaled 1,028 were published and 777 ICH representative inheritors were announced in two batches as well.

Source: IPR in China