Foreign organizations and individuals will have to obtain government approval before conducting surveys of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in China, according to a revised draft law.

The draft Law on Intangible Cultural Heritage was submitted for its second reading Monday at the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, as its bimonthly session began.

In addition to approval from culture regulatory agencies at or above provincial level, foreign organizations are required to conduct surveys in cooperation with Chinese ICH research institutions.

Foreign individuals planning to conduct surveys must have approval from culture regulatory agencies at county-government level, says the draft.

The ban on unapproved foreign ICH surveys was added to the draft law in response to concerns expressed by some legislators and local governments to the version submitted for the first reading in August.

That version of the draft only said joint surveys between Chinese institutes and foreign organizations must be approved by the government, but did not specifically prohibit foreign organizations and individuals conducting ICH surveys on their own.

Such surveys must be regulated by law, legislators were quoted as saying in the text.

The revision also introduces provisions for the state protection of ICH.

The previous version of the draft proposed the creation of representative lists of national and local intangible cultural heritage that should be protected for their historic, literary, artistic or scientific value.

The new version, however, says the ICH to be safeguarded by the state must also be heritage that reflects the good traditional cultures of the Chinese people, though it does not specify the qualities of these cultures.

The draft law defines ICH as the traditional cultural expressions and practices of China's ethnic groups that have been passed down through generations and that have become part of the group's cultural heritage.

Material objects and sites of these expressions and practices are also recognized by the draft law as ICH.

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