For a fee of 3950 yuan to apply as a heritage practitioner, and 5500 yuan for a heritage base application... according to a CCTV news report, a website called "Heritage Practitioner Network" based in Chengdu, Sichuan, specializes in creating and issuing "Chinese Heritage Practitioner" certificates. Essentially, for a payment, it can package ordinary individuals with no actual heritage practice experience into so-called "Chinese Heritage Practitioners." In recent years, with the rising popularity of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and "guochao" (national trend), some individuals have taken advantage of the situation, fabricating identities and personas for false advertising or outright fraud; these "fake heritage practitioners" represent one facet of this disorder. These opportunists not only deceive consumers but also muddy public perception and aesthetic standards amidst the chaotic mix of genuine and fake. When inferior substitutes proliferate, it is undoubtedly detrimental to the authentic inheritance of ICH. Currently, the involved website has been shut down, and local regulatory authorities have stated they are launching a special campaign to rectify the issue. There is hope that this gray industrial chain of fabricating ICH practitioners can be eradicated root and branch. Only by eliminating the false and preserving the true, and by purifying the market, can the true power of intangible cultural heritage be genuinely unleashed.
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