China disqualifies 300 intangible cultural heritage programs

Folk artist colors a clay figurine in the Huishan District of Wuxi City, East China's Jiangsu province, Nov 20, 2013.

China's cultural ministry has disqualified more than 300 state-level intangible cultural heritage programs due to ineffective preservation.

Supervision will be strengthened on the preservation of national programs, the ministry said in a statement on Friday. The disqualified programs include a broadsword performance composed by ethnic Hui people in Tianjin and a drum dance group after the ministry evaluated all the programs.

Those responsible for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage should effectively implement protective measures, help foster inheritors and ensure the actual use of special funds, said a ministry official.

Since 2006, China has allocated more than 3.5 billion yuan (about 574 million US dollars) in the protection of 1,372 national programs, 1,986 state-level inheritors and 18 experimental zones, according to the ministry.