3 Chinese items inscribed on UNESCO Memory of the World

Woodcut printing plates are seen at the Dege Sutra Printing House in Dege County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Xinhua

Three items from China have been listed as documentary heritage on the Asia Pacific regional register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World (MOW) Program, the National Archives Administration of China said last week.

The listed items include archives relating to traditional teahouses in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, genealogical records of the communities of Huizhou in East China’s Anhui Province, and printing blocks housed at the Dege Sutra Printing House in Sichuan.

The decision was approved at the 10th General Meeting of the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific, convened last week in Ulaanbaatar, Inner Mongolia.

The collection of documents that record the tea-drinking business entrepreneurship in Chengdu comprises 6,345 items, spanning from 1903 to 1949. These materials take a wide range of forms, such as manuscripts, business documents and photographs.

The Huizhou genealogy archives consist of 2,235 files spread across 427 volumes, documenting the genealogical culture that spans nearly a millennium.

Built in 1729, the Dege Sutra Printing House preserves 325,520 woodcut printing plates containing significant Tibetan classics dating back to the 11th century in good condition. The majority of the blocks were carved between the 18th and mid-20th centuries.

To date, China has 17 items of documentary heritage inscribed on the MOW regional register for Asia and the Pacific. UNESCO launched the MOW in 1992 with the intention of safeguarding documentary heritage worldwide and increasing awareness of its significance. (Xinhua)