Zou Tongqian Liu Liushan Chen Xin: Refine the Culture of the Grand Canal, and Build a Flowing National Spiritual Homeland

General Secretary Xi Jinping once pointed out that the Grand Canal is a precious heritage left to us by our ancestors, and it is a flowing culture that should be protected, inherited, and used in a coordinated manner. On July 24, 2019, the ninth meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Continuing the Reform reviewed and approved the "Great Wall, Grand Canal, and Long March National Cultural Park Construction Plan". As one of the important pilot projects of our country’s national cultural parks, the Grand Canal waited for its best time to develop. The Grand Canal National Cultural Park includes three parts: the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Sui and Tang Grand Canal, and the Zhedong Canal, 10 rivers: Tonghui River, North Canal, South Canal, Huitong River, Zhongyun River, Huaiyang Canal, Jiangnan Canal, Zhedong Canal, Yongji Canal (Wei River), Tongji Canal (Bian River), and it involves 8 provinces and cities in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan, covering a very wide range of spaces. There are many cultural heritages. There is no international precedent for the construction of a national cultural park. It is urgent to make reasonable overall planning, condense the canal culture, integrate multiple resources, and explore new concepts and new methods for the construction of national cultural parks.

1. Overall plan and orderly promote the construction of the Grand Canal as a national cultural landmark

Strengthen the top-level design and create a national spiritual homeland under the guidance of culture. The Grand Canal has been in use since ancient times and has continuously promoted the cultural, economic and industrial development of the areas along the route, which is a living linear heritage. The Grand Canal culture is a flowing and living culture. Therefore, the top-level design of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park should be guided by Xi Jinping’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implementing the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, insisting the basic principle of protecting first, strengthening inheritance, cultural guidance, highlighting characteristics, overall design, overall planning , initiative and stability, reform and innovation, adjusting measures to local conditions, and classified guidance, and sticking to the work pattern of central coordination, provincial responsibility, hierarchical management, and staged responsibility. The purpose is to create a brilliant cultural belt, green ecological belt, and colourful tourism belt of the Grand Canal, by which the unique creation, value concept and distinctive characteristics of the Grand Canal culture are vividly presented. At the same time, the economic and industrial effects of the areas along the route are taken into account. Guided by the coordinated advancement of the protection, inheritance and utilization of the Grand Canal cultural relics and cultural resources, the Grand Canal National Cultural Park can promote the economic and social development of the regions along the route, which can bring a high degree of social and economic unification, and make the Grand Canal National Cultural Park a great “business card” for China’s image, Chinese civilization, and Chinese confident culture.

Create an excellent example and implement "One Park, Two Systems". The construction of the National Cultural Park has the characteristics of large investment and long period. The Grand Canal involves many provinces, and it is difficult to carry out all the route at the same time. Therefore, the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park should be based on the regional expansion, cultural diversity and resource differences along the canal. First of all, the sections along the Grand Canal with prominent cultural value, rich cultural relics, distinctive cultural characteristics and significant cultural influence were selected for construction pilot. At the same time, there are already a series of scenic spots along the Grand Canal, represented by the ancient city of Taierzhuang and the Slender West Lake in Yangzhou. The relationship between such for-profit scenic spots and non-profit parks should be properly handled, and the "One Park, Two Systems" model of the non-profit mechanism and the market mechanism should be established to create an excellent example that can be replicated and promoted, so as to promote the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park in an orderly way from a point to an area.

Adhere to planning first and implement "multiple regulations in one". In February 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Plan for the Protection, Inheritance and Utilization of the Grand Canal Culture", which clarified the direction, goals and tasks of the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt. The construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt coincides with the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park. Therefore, it is necessary to handle the close relationship between the Grand Canal National Cultural Park and the Grand Canal Cultural Belt. The construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park cannot set up a separate kitchen. The pilot of national cultural parks should be included in the construction plan of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, and combined with the land and space planning, the management and control protection area, theme exhibition area, cultural tourism integration area and the traditional use area of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park should be reasonably arranged to realize the "multiple regulations in one" of the construction and protection plan of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park.

2.Refine the canal culture, and do a good job in the protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage

Scientifically protect and do well in the development of the Grand Canal. The cultural relics and cultural resources involved along the Grand Canal are vast. Jiangnan culture, Qilu culture, Yanzhao culture, Central Plains culture, even Southeast culture, Lingnan culture, Yellow River culture, and western culture are all gathered in the waves of the Grand Canal. However, due to too many historical debts, constructive destruction along the Grand Canal is serious. Destructive developments such as the demolition and reconstruction of the ancient town of Nanyang are not rare, and some intangible cultural heritage is on the verge of extinction. To build the Grand Canal National Cultural Park and protect the canal culture, we must first sort out cultural resources, promote digital reproduction projects, use digital technology to analyse the cultural relics and cultural resources of the Grand Canal, and form a database covering text, pictures, audio and video that can carry out digital display and improve the digital management platform of cultural relics and cultural resources of the Grand Canal; secondly, insist on "No Large-Scale Development", promote protection and inheritance projects, and carry out major repairs, rescuing conservation and preventive protection of cultural relics along the Grand Canal, which is to fully protect the authenticity, integrity and continuity of the canal. Strictly prevent improper development, and organically combine heritage protection and utilization to prevent "Thousand Cities with One Style" and excessive commercialization; at the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the process of legislation, deepen the research on legal issues and legislative proposals for the protection of cultural relics and cultural heritage along the Grand Canal, learn from the canal cultural protection experience of various provinces and cities, integrate local regulations of the protection of the Grand Canal formulated by cities such as Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, and Jiaxing, speed up the formulation of the "Regulations on the Protection of the Grand Canal" for all provinces and cities across the country, and promote the concept of protection, inheritance and utilization into the law.

Inherit and promote the spirit of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal culture that has been passed down to this day is a flowing culture. Therefore, the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park is far from enough to strengthen the protection of the Grand Canal culture. It should also be adapted to contemporary culture and in harmony with modern society. The blood and genes of the Chinese nation that it contains should be passed on from generation to generation, bring the everlasting vigor and vitality. To build a national cultural park and inherit the canal culture, we must first effectively restore the canal culture, promote research projects, and systematically sort out and discover the major events, important figures, and significant stories carried by the cultural relics and cultural resources along the Grand Canal. Strengthen the systematic study of the Grand Canal culture, highlight the IP recognition of the "Millennium Canal", and bring new life to the canal culture; secondly, it should give the canal culture a new era implication, and improve the Grand Canal museum, memorial hall, exhibition halls and other display forms by classification and promote canal history, canal literature, canal art, canal celebrities, canal stories, and canal spirit, demonstrating the power of Chinese culture. At the same time, the power of the whole society must be used to integrate the culture of the Grand Canal into the lives of the masses. To inherit the spirit of the Canal, it is not enough to rely on government management departments. With the help of the whole society, various non-profit organizations, cultural volunteers and ordinary people will be guide to participate in the canal spirit and to pass on the canal culture through various forms of publicity and activities, which become the power and driving force to inherit the Grand Canal culture.

Promote rational use and activate the canal resources. The cultural resources of the Grand Canal are living and flowing. The construction of the National Cultural Park should be guided by cultural construction, so as to promote the ecological, economic, and social construction of the area along the Grand Canal, making the Grand Canal National Cultural Park become an important promoter of strengthening the power of economic and social development in the areas along the route. To build a national cultural park and make good use of the canal culture, we must first insist the principle of "Serving the Past for the Present" and promote environmental supporting projects. The protection and inheritance of the cultural relics and cultural resources of the Grand Canal should not be strictly guarded. Instead, the protection and inheritance of the canal culture should be integrated into the practice of local economic and social development, and a number of educational bases, social practice bases, research and study travel bases should be built and improved. The public facilities, welfare facilities, and commercial facilities along the Grand Canal allow the Grand Canal to continue to bring benefits to the people in the new era, which truly achieves inheritance in protection, utilization in inheritance, and innovation in utilization. Secondly, it is necessary to develop cultural and creative industries. Canal culture is an inexhaustible source of creativity. The canal culture can be creative through a variety of art forms and multimedia methods such as TV feature films, television dramas, performing arts, cultural and creative products, and make the canal cultures such as the spirit of water governance, the history of grain transporting and merchants culture visualized, which can tell the story of the canal more vividly and enhance the self-confidence of the nation. At the same time, it is necessary to select high-quality cultural tourism resources, promote cultural and tourism integration projects, realize circulation of key sections, develop water sightseeing and leisure tours in the Huaiyang area of the Grand Canal, and create a cultural tourism demonstration area. A group of competitive cultural and tourism enterprises will promote the development of the leisure industry, create economic value, promote the transformation of cultural resources into cultural productivity, and maximize cultural value.

3. Build the Grand Canal National Cultural Park through cross-departmental and cross-regional cooperation

Pay attention to cross-departmental cooperation and solve the problem of segmented management. Different from the cultural heritage with clear boundaries and matching management institutions such as ancient towns and city walls, the Grand Canal is managed by different departments, involving transportation, water conservancy, environmental protection, planning and other departments, and the problem of segmented management is prominent. The construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park is a huge project and the communication between various departments is inconvenient. Therefore, it is necessary for departments to cooperate, uniformly plan from the top-level design, create a cooperation mechanism, and establish management zones in different provinces, which can be learnt from the experience of Jiangsu Province. A leading group for the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt should be set up, with provincial Party committees and governments assuming the main responsibility to strengthen resource integration and overall planning and coordination, and carry out the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt.

Pay attention to cross-regional cooperation and work together to promote the construction. There is no affiliation among the cities along the Grand Canal, and each city has its own governance, which has led to the emergence of a large number of similar canal cultural parks on the current Grand Canal cultural belt, resulting in unnecessary low-level competition. To build the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, it is essential to establish an overall concept, improve the information sharing mechanism. Besides, we need to form a coordinated legislative and management mechanism for protection, jointly explore the value of the canal culture in inheritance for building a platform for the spread of the canal culture, and jointly shape the brand image of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park. A cultural and tourism alliance should be set up, a cross-regional cooperation mechanism featuring interconnection, learning and support, complementarity of advantages and resource sharing should be established, and a Grand Canal National Cultural Park with different functions and characteristics should be built.

The Grand Canal carries a thousand years of history and culture from the past to the future. It is not only a precious heritage left to us by our ancestors, but also an important carrier of the outstanding traditional Chinese culture and the spirit of the Chinese nation. The construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park to refine the Canal culture and create an important symbol of Chinese culture is of great significance to the publicity of China's image, and the display of Chinese civilization and cultural confidence.