Why doesn't anyone buy traditional handicrafts?

To put it simply, most of this kind of inheritance can not exist only by the inheritance of inheritors and skills; More importantly, we need to survive through the production and marketing of products. Without the market and consumers, the cultural connotation of products will be evacuated. Even if the inheritors and skills still exist, they can only be regarded as "cultural mummies". Therefore, the productive protection of traditional handicrafts has become an important issue in the protection of intangible cultural heritage. Guangzhou's wood carving, tooth carving, jade carving, wide color and wide embroidery (so-called "three carvings, one color and one embroidery") have been listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list, and the protection of these skills is of course getting more and more attention. Nevertheless, each skill seems to have its own special problems, such as raw materials, lost skills and so on. But more importantly, a common dilemma is the shrinking of the industry. The product profit is meager, the cost is high, the enterprise is difficult to survive, and there are few willing employees. Many solutions are put forward, such as allocating funds to protect inheritors, reducing taxes to support enterprises, providing preferential policies, product innovation and so on. These schemes are not ineffective, but the biggest problem is the market-without enough consumer market, traditional handicrafts will not have their own hematopoietic and regenerative functions, and they can only maintain a state of survival by continuous infusion like a vegetative person. Is there no market? On the surface, there is no market for traditional handicrafts. In many places, the market of tourist souvenirs and folk handicrafts is still very prosperous, and some masterpieces have become collectibles, but the development of this market is not healthy. High-end products are usually only the works of a few masters and famous artists, and most markets are full of low-end products dumped at low prices, especially mechanical imitations. A beautifully made and expensive handicraft, such as Guangxiu fabric, can be regarded as genuine at a price of tens of thousands, but it is often priceless except for famous works, and few people care about it. Most consumers are content to buy cheap products as a simple folk symbol of curiosity. Such a market can only play a destructive role in expelling bad money from good money for traditional handicrafts. Is it impossible for handicrafts themselves to become high-end consumer goods? Of course not. The idea that handicraft products are rougher and worse than mechanical products is the product of early industrial civilization. With the development of commodity economy, people's consumption demand pays more and more attention to symbolic meaning, and the rise of luxury consumption in Europe is a typical example of symbolic consumption development. In the symbolic meaning of European luxury goods, the handicraft characteristics formed by learning accumulation, personal talent and a large number of working hours play an important role, and "handmade" is almost synonymous with luxury goods. So why can't China traditional handicrafts form a high-end symbol consumption market like European luxury goods? Obviously, this is not a question of purchasing power. The key point is that China's handicrafts have lost the multi-level implication of the traditional cultural context in contemporary times, leaving only the simple meaning as a symbol of the old folk customs. If the bat pattern only expresses the meaning of blessing because of the homonym of the word "fu", how much difference can it make whether the pattern is pressed by mold or carved by hand? In the final analysis, the revival of traditional handicraft skills needs the support of social and cultural environment, and it needs to arouse people's attention and respect for traditional culture and handicrafts. Only through the cultural guidance of the media, formal and informal education, and various situations of participation and interaction, the public are generally familiar with traditional handicrafts, and feel, experience and understand the subtleties and subtleties of handicrafts, and form a cultural evaluation system with social influence on this basis, it is possible to build a high-level symbolic consumer goods and even luxury consumption market of traditional handicrafts. This guiding mechanism should be a part of the traditional cultural communication and educational function included in the construction of social public cultural service system. The definition of "protection" in UNESCO's Convention for the Protection of Intangible Heritage includes "publicity, promotion, inheritance (mainly through formal and informal education) and revitalization", which means that "protection" is actually a traditional cultural revival project. The traditional handicraft market can only be truly rebuilt under the background of the revival of traditional culture and the real protection and revitalization of traditional handicrafts. (The author is the deputy director of China Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center of Sun Yat-sen University)