In recent years, the concepts of cultural industries and cultural wealth or cultural assets have gradually gained currency. For many people, the notion of culture being a business or asset initially jars, as it conjures up the incongruous image of old Confucius himself taking up trade. But in our high-speed information age, just about anything may now be called a cultural asset, and the term is applied to everything from academic discussions on the restoration and preservation of ancient monuments, to travel agencies' promotion of tourist attractions.

In fact, in the knowledge economy, the concept of cultural wealth is one that should undoubtedly be strongly fostered and promoted. However, it needs to be clearly defined, to it avoid it becoming a slogan abused for commercial gain.

The value of cultural assets lies not in monetary worth, and still less in prices paid, but in the accumulation and passing down to future generations of the fruits of human intellectual and spiritual wisdom.

Cultural assets' value cannot be quantified: they are the priceless treasures of any nation. But it usually takes a great deal of very tangible money to maintain, collect or preserve them so that successive generations can draw sustenance from their forebears' creativity, and so create the civilization of their own era.

If historically and artistically valuable buildings and monuments are merely consumed as tourist attractions, and artworks are merely hyped up in terms of ever higher auction prices, then culture is apt to be degraded into a consumer item. Once the purity of the creative environment is lost, this may spell the end for the advance of human civilization.

Just what are human cultural assets? What precious cultural assets does Taiwan have? How should we understand, cherish and protect them? And how can we let more people around the world share in this beautiful heritage of the past?

To value, protect and share the cultural assets of a nation is not only a world trend, but should also be a given in the age of the knowledge economy. That's why we have devoted a large part of this summer-holiday edition of Sinorama to our cover feature "Taiwan Stakes Its Claims-A Tour of Potential World Heritage Sites in Taiwan," to allow Taiwanese to explore Taiwan from the perspective of world values, and also let people of other nations more deeply appreciate Taiwan's natural and cultural beauty.

In this mind's-eye journey around the 11 natural and cultural sites recommended by experts as potentially meeting UNESCO's conditions for World Heritage listing, we also explore the concept of cultural assets, so as to avoid merely parroting half-understood buzzwords, and thereby missing the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the beauty of culture, and to wake up to past mistakes.

Like many other terms that are in vogue in Taiwan today, the concept of cultural wealth is rooted in many years of promotion in Japan. Therefore to understand its meaning we must inevitably discuss Japan's achievements in this area. It is over half a century since the Japanese enacted their Cultural Properties Preservation Law in the 1950s. The law divides cultural assets into three categories: "tangible cultural properties," "important cultural properties," and "national treasures."

"Tangible cultural properties" refers to items such as buildings, art and craft works, books and archaeological materials that are highly valued for their importance to Japanese history or art. Those of special significance are classed "important cultural properties," and the finest among them-those having outstanding artistic value or value for posterity from a global perspective-are specially protected as "national treasures."

Japan now has well over 1000 designated national treasures. A fifth are buildings, while the remainder include paintings, calligraphy, sculptures, craft works, books, ancient writings and items discovered in archaeological excavations. It is only after long-term field surveys, followed by appraisal by leading experts, that items are recommended to the culture ministry for national treasure status.

In this area, Taiwan has got off to a much later start. The ROC's Cultural Assets Preservation Law was not enacted until 1981. It has been amended several times from 1997 on, but powers in the area of cultural affairs have thus far not been placed in the hands of a single agency, and of the 280-plus historic monuments so far designated, many have been wrecked by botched "restoration" work. Evidently the importance of protecting cultural assets, and the ways to do so, are still new areas of learning for Taiwan. For this work to get on track will require the government and the private sector to join hands, respect professional expertise, and modestly study the experience and methods of our Japanese neighbors.

Getting to know Taiwan's potential World Heritage candidates is a first step toward understanding the concept of cultural wealth. Let us together value our common human heritage, and maintain a culturally rich Taiwan for the people of the world.