The Construction of Nezha Beliefs and Customs in the Context of Intangible Cultural Heritage
ZHANG Chaojin HE Tianhan
Abstract: This paper takes the Nezha belief and customary practices in Macao as the research object and explores the modern reconstruction mechanism of traditional beliefs under the framework of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) protection through literature analysis, field investigation, and corpus-based quantitative methods. The research findings are as follows: In the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, the crisis of epidemic diseases spurred the spatial expansion and ritual adaptation of the Nezha belief and customary practices. From 2004 to 2024, ICH policies have evolved through five stages, namely, “legislative foundation laying—graded identification—vital inheritance—dynamic management—international dissemination”, which have facilitated the transformation of traditional beliefs and customs into public cultural assets. Through semantic analysis, the paradigm shift of the cultural core in the process of heritage-making is revealed. The study proposes a three-dimensional support model: government-led institutional guarantee, academic construction of knowledge systems,and community-driven practical innovation. The coordinated efforts of these three aspects build a regenerative path for traditional beliefs and customs. The experience of Macao shows that ICH protection is essentially about reshaping the interface capability between traditional culture and modern governance, while also needing to balance the tension between institutional norms and community autonomy.
Key words: Nezha beliefs and customs; Intangible Cultural Heritage; Heritagization; Cultural Regeneration; Macao Studies
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