BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- China is losing most of its folk arts, forcing enthusiasts and government officials to take effective measures to rescue the valuable cultural heritage.

　　Folk cultural heritage embraces three major categories, namely folk customs, folk literature and folk arts, which are seen as significant carriers of the national spirit and emotions of China, according to Feng Jicai, a well-known writer and folklore scholar in Tianjin, north China.

　　"Every minute folk heritage, no matter whether it is an ancient village or a small pouch, is fading away from our fields, mountains and corners of most remote inhabited areas," said Feng.

　　Statistics show that in Beijing the wealth of 300-odd varieties of folk arts and crafts in the mid 1960s had dropped drastically to some 30 at the end of the 20th century.

　　South China's Guangdong Province used to have around 1,200 folkart genres, but now only 600 or so remain, according to the local folk artists association.

　　"Many ancient art forms are on the verge of extinction, as the older generation of artists have passed away and few young people are qualified to take over," said Feng.

　　"If no action is taken to rescue the folk cultural heritage, nearly half of it will disappear forever in the next two decades,"he warned.

　　In Sichuan, Shaanxi and Zhejiang provinces many folk arts have only one generation of successors and one foremost exponent each, the majority of whom are old people. Some of the folk arts have been lost.   Next Page