Sustainability in China

There were many themes found in the blog entries that discussed actions the Chinese government is taking in order to sustain its music culture. One of the things that really struck me was finding out, in the oldest blog entry, that UNESCO could be playing a role in helping to keep the music of guquin zither alive by declaring it intangible cultural heritage. This declaration pressured China to keep this culture alive because China signed a treaty about this topic. I thought that the comment made by Titon speculating that cultural policy is being put into place in light of the Cultural Revolution was interesting. It made me wonder whether the Chinese government just recently reflected on mistakes made in the past and decided to join an organization like UNESCO as a way to make amends and reassure its citizens, and the world, that nothing like the Cultural Revolution would happen again. I was surprised to see that the Chinese government has been a part of UNESCO since 1946. I could be missing a certain aspect of the story, but I find it difficult to understand how a government that threatens traditional expressive culture can still be a part of an organization like UNESCO. However it may have been, the blog entry shed light on the idea that outside pressure and attention from organizations like UNESCO could have helped spread the popularity of the traditions found in China like guqin zither. It also could have, as Titon mentions, moved China to discover the importance of this tradition through the attention it is receiving. This information helped enrich my understanding of the outside forces that can affect the sustainability of a culture. I feel like there were more internal forms of sustainability mentioned in the book like using notation and looking at essays and books that a composer wrote to understand how to play a piece. It also discusses using standardized tuning and artists making new compositions combining certain aspects of traditional and Western culture. I feel like these actions are things that are being done by individuals close to the culture. This information in the blog helped me to understand that there could be a complex web being weaved in the background of sustaining a music culture.  
Actions taken by UNESCO and the government led to a more concrete realization of sustainability in the form of financial assistance. The orchestra found in the Qujiaying village that plays traditional funeral music received $2 million dollars for its village and culture. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, the Chinese government noticed the attention it was receiving. This money was, theoretically, all used to build a temple, museum, to pay for instruments, and to pay master musicians to teach a future generation. It is in these ways that the big picture Titon painted by mentioning UNESCO and the Cultural Revolution led to sustainability. 
I also thought it was interesting that the blog mentioned the use of notation to help the musicians stay as close to the original form as possible. This is a tool of sustainability that was directly connected to the reading. I also found it interesting that the the blog he wrote later seemed to emphasize the importance of a culture being relatively secluded in order to stay true to its roots. This makes sense but I feel like this idea can be contradictory with the idea mentioned earlier; that big organizations like UNESCO and interest from outside forces could actually help with sustainability. The issue brought up here is that the more attention a music culture receives the more it's being exposed to other cultures and with that changing.  

The UNESCO information: http://en.unesco.org/countries/china