When Tangible And Intangible Heritage Cannot Be Taken Apart:A Crossed Comparison Of Heritages Linked To Champagne And Moutai Baijiu

For about fifteen years,the UNESCO have divided cultural heritage into two different categories:tangible and intangible cultural heritage.Following the publication of the new UNESCO convention in 2003,every States Parties had to define what part of their national cultural heritage can be included in the new intangible cultural heritage category.Since they both signed the convention,France and China are no exception in the process and some of their intangible cultural heritage practices are now inscribe on the international list.Considering the national characteristics of the two countries,they surprisingly include nearly the same kind of practices in their national intangible cultural heritage inventories.However,when it comes to heritage linked to food and drinks,the approaches of the two countries are different.France is more likely to consider its heritage as a whole,protecting tangible and intangible heritage together,and where the place of production and the techniques used in the process cannot be separated.On the contrary,China would emphasize more on the intangible aspect than on the tangible one:the techniques should be kept as production secrets,hence the protection as heritage.Heritage linked to champagne in France and to Moutai baijiu in China will help us to better understand these trends in the heritage protection field.