The Chinese State Council has included the Spring Festival, Peking Opera, acupuncture, The Legend of Madame White Snake and Shaolin Kungfu in the country's first intangible cultural heritage list.

The list contains 518 items in 10 categories, including folk literature, folk music and dance, traditional opera, ballad singing, cross-talk, acrobatics, folk fine arts, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine and folk customs, the State Council announced on its website on Friday.

The 518 items were selected by a jury organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Academy of Arts of China (AAC) from more than 1,300 traditions across the country.

However, experts say the protection of heritage in China is a race against time.

"Intangible cultural heritage in China is facing a rigorous challenge in its battle against urbanization and globalization," said Tian Qing, a member of the jury and director of the Intangible Culture Heritage Research Center under the AAC.

An old artwork, handicraft or folk song is likely to disappear and an old house is likely to be demolished every second in China.

Few Chinese media covered UNESCO's listing of Kunqu opera as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity" in 2001, while the Japanese media acclaimed the listing of the Nogaku theater, said Tian.

"The Chinese government's attention to intangible heritage was fueled by the public," he said.

Scholars have been studying and recording the folk culture of ethnic groups since the 1950s, said Song Zhaolin, a folklorist and a researcher with the National Museum of China.

Their research was encouraged and funded by the Project for the Preservation of the Chinese Folklore, established by the Ministries of Culture and Finance in 2003.

"The notice on protection of the cultural heritage issued by the State Council at the end of last year triggered so much public attention that the public flocked to the exhibition on intangible heritage in Beijing earlier this year," he said.

A seminar would be held in the near future to discuss academic questions on the protection of intangible heritage, Tian said.

The condition of the intangible cultural heritage is widely linked to social and economic developments, Tian said, and some people in scenic spots were turning intangible heritage into stunts to entertain tourists.

"It mainly depends on the heritage holders to protect, pass down, develop and invigorate intangible cultural heritage," he said.

The government has established an annual national "Cultural Heritage Day" on the second Saturday of June, the first falling on June 10 with a series of performances and exhibitions to celebrate.

"I believe the intangible cultural heritage list issued by the State Council will help the public reconsider their traditions. Their heritage will become a memory unless the public increases protection awareness," he said.

Editor: Wing