The Committee,
- Having examined document ITH/17/12.COM/8.c,
- Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decision 6.COM 8.6,
- Expresses its thanks to China for submitting its report on the status of the element ‘Hezhen Yimakan storytelling’, inscribed in 2011 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
- Takes note of the ongoing efforts undertaken by China to safeguard the element and, in particular, those aimed at ensuring community-based capacity building, increasing the number and quality of performances and promoting a favourable social and cultural context for the Hezhen language and culture;
- Invites the State Party to continue the recognition and training of practitioners and the provision of financial aid for them, which facilitates the transmission of Yimakan storytelling and the safeguarding the Hezhen mother tongue, and to strengthen the network of practice centres established in the Hezhen communities as major venues for transmission activities;
- Encourages the State Party to continue its systematic digital documentation of the element, with the further establishment of thematic databases, as well as the inclusion of Yimakan storytelling in formal and non-formal education so as to promote the element among youth and facilitate their engagement in its transmission;
- Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the deadline of 15 December 2019 about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.