China to Launch Second National Intangible Cultural Heritage Census in 15th Five-Year Plan Period

The census is framed as a resource-mapping exercise, but its real weight lies in the master catalogue it would produce: a single authoritative register that determines which practices get recognition, funding and protection status. For the communities and practitioners behind the more than 100,000 listed items, that register is the difference between visibility and obscurity. Whether the catalogue becomes a living inventory or a static archive is the open question.