Keywords

1 Introduction

With the rapid industrialization and urbanization process in China, as some local governments place too much emphasis on GDP or short-term economic benefits, a growing number of historical and cultural heritages are disappearing in the process. These heritages, due to social economic transformation, the new social consumption patterns and tourism commercial involvement, are losing survival foundation and destroying ecological nature, which has brought about irreversible changes.

Intangible cultural heritage is the result of development and accumulation of human civilization activities. The level of protection, scope, quality and social benefits generated, reflect the level of civilization and culture of a country as a whole. Also it is the only way to carry down human civilization and cultural heritage. So how to combine the local natural and cultural environment, authenticity, a panoramic view of the various intangible cultural landscape displays, is the purpose to protect and pass on the heritage which should not be ignored, and need an urgent study.

Traditional museums which display intangible cultural heritage landscape have played an important role, but as they are enclosed in particular buildings (such as a museum hall), with little or no participation of indigenous people, they can not demonstrate intangible, non-form aspects, therefore they can not completely show really intangible cultural heritage landscape, and the aim of this landscape display is precisely to better protect these heritages.

Given the limitations of the traditional museum display of intangible cultural heritage landscape, governments in many countries and in many parts of our country have conducted a lot of theoretical study and practical experiments, such as the proposal of eco-museum concept and its practice, with a connotation of ecological community museums and specialized ecological museums, etc., to solve this problem provides a useful theoretical basis and practical experience, but also for our country to develop a useful idea for the display of intangible cultural heritage landscape, and conservation of intangible cultural heritage.

2 Characteristics of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Its Landscape Display

Intangible cultural heritage refers to a variety of cultural expressions and cultural spaces to be inherited for generations, and closely related to people’s life [1]. It refers to, regarded by communities, groups, and sometimes persons, the social practice as parts of their cultural heritage representations, expressions, knowledge, skills, and associated instruments, objects, art work and cultural places [2]. The intangible cultural heritage is an intangible, local and a living culture.

This kind of culture and heritage, only through the involvement of people or groups in human behavior and mental activities, expressed in dynamic behavior or the way of information transfer, can only be expressed with visual and non-visual, tangible and intangible, while it can be felt, in a living state and with dynamic characteristics.

In summary, the landscape display of intangible cultural heritage, must have the following factors: the unique quality of the natural landscape, authenticity of its rendering process, integrity, continuity of cultural heritage, and people’s participation.

Thus people are exploring new forms of panoramic display of intangible cultural heritage landscape. Looking at the history and social development process, intangible cultural heritage is always inherited in change and development. Many of the “original” heritages that people now protect are not entirely the originally ecological state in their own sense, but the “originally ecological state” identified in today’s historical section. In the process of inheritance, people make adaptive adjustments, improvements and innovations according to changes in social productivity. Therefore, it is necessary to protect the living environment according to changes in the social and cultural environment.

3 Theory and Practice of Intangible Cultural Heritage Display

Eco-Museum Proposals and Its Connotation.

A series of theoretical exploration and operation practices have been carried out, and achieved gratifying results at abroad, in order to better display, conserve, make research on inheriting intangible cultural heritage.

In 1950, Albert Parr the American Museum of Natural History curator, first put forward the concept of the museum to be repositioned, adapt to changes in the environment, and adapt to social development. In the 20 years that followed, scholars have come to realize that museums must be adapt to social development, outgrow the traditional model, and proposed the concept that museums should show more things outside their architecture and the surrounding environment concerning such intangible factors as political, cultural, economic, social or folk, humane and natural environment.

From the seventies and eighties of the last century, George Henry Riviera proposed and gradually improved the definition of eco-museum, which is the famous “Riviera definition”, pointing out that eco-museum does not specifically refer to the natural ecological related museums, its focus is on community and its residents. Hugo de Kovalam, founder of eco-museum theory, further explained it as follows: “Eco” in Ecological Museum (eco-museum) does not refer to ecology itself, but the social environment equalization system.

International Museum of Natural History Committee recommended the definition of eco-museum as follows: Eco-museum through scientific, educational, or generally cultural means of management, makes research and development of a particular community, including the whole tradition of its natural and cultural environment [3].

The French government enacted an clearer definition in 1981, that in a permanent way, on a particular land, along with people’s participation, to ensure its research, conservation and display functions, emphasizing the natural and cultural heritage as a whole, in order to show the inherited lifestyle in a representative field.

The interpretation of these definitions and connotations emphasizes the protection of intangible cultural heritage in the original place instead of removing to museums. These theories point out to us a way of displaying the intangible cultural heritage, which should not be displayed in the traditional museum, because once intangible heritage disappears in a place, it will fade in the history. People of next generations can not actually feel their existence, thus destroys the original, local, natural or human environment.

Display of Intangible Cultural Heritage Landscape and Practice of Eco-Museums.

France is the first eco-museum practice site.

In 1967, France established a “local natural park in France,” which reserves intangible cultural heritage or restores to its original state, focusing on a comprehensive education to people the relationship between people and environment, preserving the memory of tradition in the region. Participation of community residents makes the protection of intangible cultural heritage remain in the local natural and humane environment.

The opening of “Ke Laisuo Montessori Eco-museum”, retains the folk religion and industrial buildings passing down from the 18th century, showing the original historical characteristics of lifestyle and cultural environment of the region and so on. Community participation plays an important role in its authenticity and sustainable development.

Built in 1986, France’s “Bo Laisai Eco-museum” is a representative case of the French eco-museums in the nineties of the last century. It perfects the concept of eco-museum, cares to preserve local ecological environment; carries out preservation, protection and comprehensive study on intangible cultural heritage. Community residents participate in and guide visitors to arouse their interest in cultural and natural heritage and so on. Through these means, the cultural heritage can be displayed, studied and inherited in its genuine, originally ecological environment.

Since the eighties of the last century in some regions of Norway, Sweden, Britain and other countries, more ecological museums have also been established to reserve original humane and natural ecological environment, providing a local recognition platform for intangible cultural heritage, a display of the entire process, a conservation and inheritance measure. With these eco-museum exhibitions, they train people and motivate their interest in the natural environment and historical heritage, and responsibility to protect local natural and cultural environment, and people’s lives reach the harmony between people’s lifestyle and production mode.

Since 1980, the eco-museum concept has been accepted by many countries in the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin America, and its ideas have gained popularity in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Oceania and Asia. There has been a rapid development. By the 1990s, the number of ecological museums in the world had reached more than 300.

4 Domestic Intangible Cultural Heritage Landscape Display Mode

In 2003, UNESCO adopted the “International Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” In 2004 China formally joined the international conventions, and in 2005 the first national intangible cultural heritage list recommendation project started, paying increasingly attention to the intangible cultural heritage display and protection. Ways and means to its landscape display have been improved steadily along with the development of science and technology [4].

Intangible cultural heritage landscape display experienced from the scratch, from the local regions to the whole country, from the plane mode to the three-dimensional process. The display has also experienced a single “picture + word” to “audio + video” up to the “three-dimensional images + multimedia stereo” and other technological means of sound, light, images.

However, these landscape display format, mostly confined to the museum halls in the traditional sense, while the enclosed display in the form of a traditional museum has been unable to fully accomplish the tasks of panoramic display, audience participation, and protection of tradition, especially the unique customs, popular in certain settlements, and traditional oral culture, production techniques and processes. With the progress of urbanization, as well as impacts of local over-exploitation from an economic perspective, over- development of ancient towns has resulted in a lack of historical and cultural memory and cultural convergence.

Successful practice of titled eco-museums or specialized museums without the title of eco-museum but have a content of eco-museum, and community museums provide us with an example of the display of intangible cultural heritage landscape, e.g. Bo Laisai ecological museum in France, and Figure Raton Museum of Norway, Borg Sagan ecological museum in Sweden. Specialized museums with eco-museum concept and community museums, even ancient towns and villages, provide a comprehensive display of traditional handicraft production process, such as the show of traditional glass-making process in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan, shown in an European style street, are excellent examples.

5 Principles for Designing Landscape Display of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Regional Nature of Natural Landscape.

No culture can exist in real life from the environment on which it depends. The living culture is nurtured in the local social, natural and cultural environment. To preserve it, it must be coordinated with the sociocultural ecology in which it is located.

The Authenticity and Integrity of the Restoration Process.

Intangible cultural heritage is a unique cultural landscape that reflects production, lifestyle and activities in a specific region or in a specific environment. The original display of intangible cultural heritage is a different way from the “solid” and “static” protection and display of traditional museums. It is more “live” and “dynamic” as a way of display, in order to fully and truly demonstrate its complete process.

Inheritance of Cultural Heritage.

The main carrier of intangible cultural heritage is people. It is the community residents, artisans and artists who engage in this cultural activity. They are people-oriented, and they are passed on from generation to generation, from masters to apprentices, and from the inheritance of human beings. The natural cultural heritage will naturally die out without people’s participation.

People’s Participation.

Intangible cultural heritage is created and passed down by people in local social production activities. The participation of community residents and active people is very important. Through self-management, direct or indirect economic benefits, the participation enthusiasm is continuously improved. It plays a key role in display and protection.

6 Design Method of Intangible Cultural Heritage Landscape Display

The design of intangible cultural heritage landscape display has the following methods: live display, scene reproduction, and interactive inheritance.

Living Display.

The live demonstration of intangible cultural heritage is actually a way of designing its existence and activities in the original ecological environment. The most fundamental difference between it and the traditional, solid-state display type is that it is not a static display of objects on the materialized level of a historical geographical node, but an intangible cultural dynamic display of the non-materialized level of society in the development process. By establishing an ecological museum display in traditional villages, it is possible to better protect some natural villages in relatively remote and sheltered areas. In the restoration, protection and development of ancient villages, ancient towns and ancient streets, the local cultural landscape is organically displayed. This local, original and original lively display of the local cultural landscape has played a very important role.

Scene Reproduction, or Context Restoration.

The particularity of the display of intangible cultural heritage is that it realizes the reappearance of the scene through the organization of the space environment and the human environment. Through the scene, the audience creates a space environment and a human environment that can truly explain the exhibits of intangible cultural heritage.In the professional museum, the panoramic reproduction shows the unique cultural landscape of the area. Using some of the factory’s early production equipment and process flow, the audience will get an overall, original impression. For example, the ancient canal block in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, uses the original silk factory, the professional museum built in the ancient kiln group of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the community museum established by the residents of the Xianyudun community in Wuxi, and also vividly displayed the local silk and brick production lines. Cultural process and cultural environment can thus be restored production lines such as production process and folk activities in the area of southern Yangtze River Delta.

Interactive Inheritance.

The display of intangible cultural heritage is not a one-way transmission of material heritage, but through the activities of individuals or groups of people, to participate, express and experience in person, in the process of achieving the smooth communication of intangible cultural information, to achieve the purpose of inheritance. It is embodied in the use of ancient villages, ancient towns, ancient streets to repair, protect and develop cultural landscapes. The local combination of ecological construction, excavation of cultural diversity, and promotion and development of local tourism development, through the display of various technological techniques, such as the blue print fabric production process of Wuzhen, Zhejiang, the clay figurine production of Huishan Ancient Town, Wuxi, Jiangsu, the batik of Dali, Yunnan, Suzhou’s Su embroidery in the ancient towns, etc., to promote people’s personal participation, thereby increasing people’s interest in these skills, and finally achieve the effect of inheritance.

7 Demonstration of Intangible Cultural Heritage Landscape Display

Establish Eco-Museum for Display.

Eco-museum practice in China started in the mid-1990s. Local governments made exploration to protect the traditional settlements in this period, such as Tunxi Ancient Street in Anhui, Xu Village in Shexian, Xiuning in Anhui and other ancient towns were listed in the provincial areas of historical and cultural protection. Guizhou Province launched the “Ethnic Cultural Villages” experimental protection program, and Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Jiangsu, Wuzhen, in Zhejiang and ancient towns in other provinces were listed in the ancient town protection projects. In the southwestern regions of Guizhou and Guangxi, under the influence of international “eco-museum” reputation effects, the display and protection have been strengthened, becoming major provinces to implement eco-museum projects, e.g., Suxia Miao eco-museum, the town of Buyi ecological museum in Zhenshan. This natural village eco-museums are commonly seen in relatively remote and transportation backward Western regions.

Display Specialized Museum and Community Museum.

There are many places, taking advantage of a variety of specialized museums, panoramically display unique local cultural landscape, such as Qingdao Beer Museum, making use of the workflow and equipment of the former Tsingtao Brewery, a beer manufacturer of Germany in China, allowing viewers to get a whole, living impression of its workflow.

Wuxi’s Ancient Canal blocks turned the original silk reeling mills and the site of ancient kilns built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties into specialized museums and community museums. The community of Xian Li Tun, Wuxi built a community museum, vividly demonstrating the local reeling, brick making and other folk cultural landscape and human environment in the Southern Yangtze River Delta.

Display Cultural Landscape along with the Renovation, Protection and Development of Ancient Towns, Villages and Street Blocks.

In recent years, in accordance with ecological construction, restoration, protection and development of ancient local villages, ancient towns, ancient streets, people excavate cultural diversity in them, organically show the local cultural landscape, which in the local community, the approach of native, original, and living display of local cultural landscape has played a good role, such as the blue print cloth production process in Wuzhen in Zhejiang, clay figurines making procedure in Huishan, Wuxi, Jiangsu, wax-dying technique in Dali, Yunnan, embroidery of Mudu town, Suzhou, etc. These kinds of display have better preserved local cultural environment.

8 Thoughts on the Intangible Cultural Landscape Display

Display of intangible cultural landscape is a matter of museology, landscape designing, architecture, environment sciences, ecology and other interdisciplinary topics, which are involved in many government departments concerned, the current economic development and cultural landscape display and protection of environment. There is often a conflict between the current economic development and the protection of the local natural environment, which needs to be considered in a long-term, scientific way.

Local governments with sufficient conditions can formulate projects and programs to build ecological museums, such as eco-museum project in the southwestern region. Also the economic entities such as tourism development companies, by means of exploitation and development of ancient streets and towns, can donate or fund to establish specialized museums. And also, a number of industrial and mining enterprises and farms with profound historical and cultural heritage, can protect, study the unique production techniques, production processes, through current production flows in some factories, workshops, cultural landscape is showing to tourists, where workers are still making products, and the audience can witness, experience, and some can even participate personally. Such as ancient salt and sugar making wine brewing process, and other places where the production process is shown and the effective protection of the original ecological environment can be obtained.

At present, considering from eco-museum concept, there is much improvement in displaying cultural landscape.

Natural environment has been constructively damaged in some places. In the cultural landscape of environmental restoration, too much attention has been paid to appealing aesthetic factors and the attraction of tourists. The natural environment and cultural landscape have been made excessive use, the use of modern technology and materials in repairing, such as cement repaired facades, aluminum alloy windowsills, air-conditioning machines fixed on the walls, all of which destroyed the authenticity of landscape. The same kind of exterior repair and decoration destroyed the heterogeneity of the local natural and cultural environment.

Low degree of participation of community residents occur in some places, all the original residents moved to other places and the excessive commercial exploitation and the introduction of too many commercial projects, cause residents participation reduce or even no participation, people come and go in the daytime and the block becomes empty shell town at night. These have destroyed the historical memory of the original human environment. Ecological theory tells us that people need not only economic development, improved material life, but also need to meet the needs of the natural environment. Modern ecology science, environmental science take shape and develop leading people to establish a more equilibrium and harmony between man and nature, urban development and ecological environment [5].

Living display of intangible cultural landscape is not given proper consideration. When they display cultural landscape in the museums in some places, the authorities still maintain the traditional thinking, focusing on static display in a still state, but not showing the whole process of the cultural heritage as a whole. As a result, the living display of human environment has been turned into a static exhibition.

Therefore, in the design of the exhibition of intangible cultural landscape, we take care of avoiding the above deficiencies. Take the Huishan Ancient Town Project, which is currently being repaired and listed in the “Application for World Heritage” in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province as an example. Let us discuss the following aspects:

Excavate a main line and an auxiliary line to display the local historical and cultural landscape in all directions. Taking the ancestral culture as the main line, it shows the connotation of the local filial piety culture and the farming culture that has been passed down for thousands of years. With Huishan clay figurine, Huiquan yellow wine, Huishan oil crisp cakes and Wuxi Opera, and “small heat” comic dialogue as two auxiliary lines, together with the display of the food and developed by the public activities such as the ancestral temple worship and the Huishan temple fair. Cultural achievements such as performing arts and exhibitions showcase the unique culture, characteristic handicrafts and special diets of Wuxi Huishan through the front sales space and back workshops, family production, and the participation of the masses.

Use policy tilt or economic leverage to attract aboriginal and non-genetic people and families to move back, form a non-legacy cultural display block, and have non-genetic inheritors such as the original residents and Huishan clay figurines, Huishan oil cake production, etc. The active participation of community residents or craftsmen can reflect the display of the eco-museum.

Using civil society to carry out research on intangible culture, Wuxi Huishan ancestral Culture Research Association has played such a role, and in the future it will attract more academic groups to participate in various research, such as genealogical research, production technology research and so on.

Avoid excessive commercial development and homogenization. The display of intangible cultural landscape should avoid the influence of excessive commercial development and its destruction into a one-person, one-size-fits-all antique street. The development such as Mudu and Luxiang Ancient Village, in Suzhou should be the road to sustainable development.

9 Conclusions

Researches and practices in cultural landscapes display of the intangible cultural heritage have been carried on at home and abroad for many years. From the view point of the theory and concept of ecological museum, this paper proposes cultural landscape ecologic display based on the concept of eco-museum, to the protection of historical and cultural environment, and promote harmony between man and natural human environment, and various forms of inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and its development can be guaranteed.