What is cultural heritage? Please give examples to explain why we should protect cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage is conceptually divided into tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. Cultural heritage includes material cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. Material and cultural heritage is a cultural relic with historical, artistic and scientific value; Intangible cultural heritage refers to various forms of traditional cultural expressions that exist in intangible forms and are closely related to people's lives and passed down from generation to generation. Since 2006, the second Saturday in June has been China Heritage Day.

What material and intangible cultural heritage can give modern people is that it helps modern people to know themselves and their relationship with the environment. The most essential meaning of material and intangible cultural heritage is the memory of what human beings have done. Material and intangible cultural heritage serves the present by restoring human past memories.

Material and intangible cultural heritage is precious wealth left over from history, which contains the unique spiritual values, ways of thinking, lifestyles and customs of people in a country or region. Material and intangible cultural heritage is precious to human beings. The Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage mainly expounds the values of various heritages from the perspectives of history, art, aesthetics and science. The Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage particularly emphasizes that intangible cultural heritage is the melting pot of cultural diversity, the guarantee of sustainable development, and the key to close interpersonal relations and interpersonal communication and understanding, and its role is immeasurable. We believe that different types of heritage have different values, but generally speaking, the value of human cultural heritage is mainly reflected in history, art, science, education and economy.

Historical value. Cultural heritage is passed down from generation to generation in a specific historical stage, a specific ethnic group and a specific geographical scope. It vividly preserved and displayed the living conditions, production customs, lifestyles and ethical concepts of these people, and reflected the natural ecological conditions and social, political, economic, scientific, technological, military and cultural conditions at that time, thus having far-reaching historical value. Without the specific cultural background of a country, a nation and a region, it is difficult for us to have a more comprehensive understanding and understanding of the history of this country, a nation and a region. In this sense, cultural heritage is a vivid way and content to know a nation, a region, a period of history and a culture.

Artistic and scientific values. The artistic and scientific value of cultural heritage mainly means that cultural heritage is the crystallization of ancestors' wisdom and the condensation of imagination and creativity. For example, from the Egyptian pyramids, ancient Greek temples and a large number of intangible cultural heritages, we can appreciate the spiritual value, way of thinking, imagination and creativity of our ancestors.

Educational value. The educational value of cultural heritage mainly refers to the enlightenment significance of cultural heritage to future generations. When people see the unique and precious heritage left by their ancestors, they will feel the inner shock and get the enlightenment of truth, goodness and beauty, so as to cultivate their own sentiments and adjust their body, mind and behavior. In this sense, cultural heritage is an important cultural foundation to link national emotional ties, enhance national unity and social stability, and is also a prerequisite to maintain the diversity and creativity of world culture and promote the common development of mankind.

Economic value. The economic value of cultural heritage can be regarded as the externalization or realistic embodiment of its historical, artistic, scientific and educational values. It is precisely because cultural heritage has great historical, artistic, scientific and educational value to human beings that it can also bring certain economic benefits to the location or owner of the heritage, such as tourist ticket income, souvenir income and so on. Of course, we should not attach too much importance to the economic value of cultural heritage, otherwise it may damage other values of cultural heritage. This is how to deal with the relationship between the development and protection of cultural heritage.

It is precisely because of the great value of material and intangible cultural heritage to mankind that it is very necessary to protect it.