On Nov 11, 2014, the State Council approved and released the fourth representative list of state-level intangible cultural heritage items (153 in total), and an extended representative list of state-level intangible cultural heritage items (153 in total).
Both lists were submitted by the Ministry of Culture.
According to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the expression “list of state-level intangible cultural heritage” has been replaced by “representative list of state-level intangible cultural heritage items”.
The extended list consists of items ratified as part of the country’s representative intangible cultural heritage in the previous three lists — but that have been nominated again by different regions and organizations.
The State Council urged local authorities to follow the law and carry out the guidelines on protecting intangible cultural heritage, so that the best of traditional Chinese culture can be promoted and developed.
| Category | The fourth representative list of state-level intangible cultural heritage items | The extended representative list of state-level intangible cultural heritage items |
| Folk literature | 30 | 7 |
| Traditional music | 15 | 19 |
| Traditional dance | 20 | 16 |
| Traditional drama | 4 | 15 |
| quyi (a general name for Chinese folk vocal art forms, including ballad singing, storytelling, comic dialogue, clapper talk, cross talk) | 13 | 4 |
| Traditional sports, entertainment and acrobatics | 12 | 6 |
| Traditional fine arts | 13 | 23 |
| Traditional craftsmanship | 29 | 32 |
| Traditional medicine | 2 | 10 |
| Folk customs | 15 | 21 |
