The Committee,

1. Having examined document LHE/22/17.COM/6.a Rev.,
2. Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions 4.COM 14.02, 12.COM 8.c.2 and 16.COM 7.a.10,
3. Expresses its appreciation to China for submitting, on time, its third report on the status of the element ‘Qiang New Year festival’, inscribed in 2009 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
4. Takes note of the efforts described in the report submitted by China to safeguard the element, in particular through supporting its intergenerational transmission, broadening possibilities for apprenticeship and education, raising awareness among younger generations about the element, renewing its viability in a post-disaster situation, restoring traditional villages and securing the functioning of transmission and practice centers, and advancing documentation and research;
5. Invites the State Party to pursue its efforts to enhance the transmission of the element through supporting experienced bearers, practitioners and apprentices to ensure the continuity of transmission, to safeguard traditions associated with the element and sustain Qiang language learning, to maintain local spaces important for the practice of the element, to strengthen cooperation among diverse stakeholders, and to consult with local communities on monitoring, evaluating and adjusting safeguarding activities;
6. Encourages the State Party to support income generating activities in local communities through developing entrepreneurship and sustainable tourism, while respecting cultural and social functions of the element for its communities, and recalls the importance of ensuring that the communities concerned are the primary beneficiaries of such activities and of taking heed of the impact of over-commercialization and potential decontextualization of the element;
7. Notes also of the initiative of the State Party to continue constructing cultural and ecological reserves to safeguard the element, and further encourages the State Party to regularly consult with the Qiang people on the planning and implementation of the initiative;
8. Acknowledges that the element was reported without the possibility of taking into account the recommendations made by the Committee on the previous report on the element, further recalls the importance of regular periodic reporting, and further invites the State Party to follow the four-year reporting cycle for its future reports on the element;
9. Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the deadline of 15 December 2025 about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.