The Transmission and Consumption of Traditional Culture in Aging Society－With a Focus on Diabolo－

In 2003, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In the same year, the Chinese government embarked on a cultural heritage protection project to restore China ‘s traditional culture. The country’s local governments also joined forces in implementing projects for discovering traditional cultural heritages. In 2005, 226 leading cultural transmitters were placed on the list of national cultural heritages. This resulted from the government’s efforts to compile a list of major cultural heritages in close cooperation with the private sector and establish a systematic management system. Diabolo (空竹) was also discovered alongside the country’s cultural heritage conservation movement and was listed as a national cultural heritage in 2006. As a folk game that became famous upon a group performance at the Beijing Olympics, diabolo has rapidly penetrated into elderly citizens. The existing diabolo association’s expansion into China’s provinces resulted in various cultural exchanges, making it grow into a new item for urban festivals.Diabolo is assessed as a symbolic heritage of urban culture, which has properly embraced intergenerational demands and changing times. In particular, the enthusiastic engagement and activities of performers who are called “the first generation of diabolo” contributed to the positioning of diabolo as a popular folk game. They have driven the urbanization and educationalization of traditional games and boosted the consumption of China’s traditional culture across all generations. Moreover, they have taken the lead in educating and distributing diabolo as an intermediary who facilitates friendship and exchanges, flexible human relations, and regional solidarity.A culture without interactions with generations can hardly attain public acceptance in the name of tradition. As a medium for the sharing and remembrance of China’s traditional culture across time, diabolo has connected generations and regions, thereby eliciting their successful collaborations. For this reason, diabolo was selected as a major sporting event at universities and expanded itself into the domain of sports. Moreover, preparations are now underway to make it a demonstration sport at the coming Asian Games. The cultural phenomenon that diabolo is consumed in a new pattern by transcending time and space as well as generations will likely become a significant case that helps explore the relationship between the continuous development and the intergenerational transmission of traditional culture in an aging society.