Intangible cultural heritage is the people of all generations each other, and the life of the masses closely related to a variety of traditional cultural expressions and cultural space. Non material cultural heritage is not only the historical witness of the development, it is the precious, valuable cultural resources. China is a country with a long history of civilization, not only have a lot of material cultural heritage, but also a variety of intangible cultural heritage. The people of all our ethnic groups in the long-term production and life practice to create rich and colorful non-material cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, is the crystallization of the wisdom and civilization, is the link of national affection and maintain national unity based. To protect and make good use of the intangible cultural heritage in China, to implement the scientific outlook on development, implementation economy society the comprehensive, harmonious, can develop continuously have important sense. Non material cultural heritage census, is a country in the early twenty-first Century by a massive culture of the census, is a master of state and regional intangible cultural heritage contains status and understanding public feelings popular means. The census data and data, as part of a comprehensive analysis of the situation of one of important data, is the national or regional authorities to develop cultural policy and the important basis of formulation of policy. Survey of non material cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage to the effective protection of endangered species, the intangible cultural heritage rescue foundation. Therefore, unite deploy according to the State Council, the national non material cultural heritage in the census, regardless of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance and development, or to the national surveys, has the important meaning.

非物质文化遗产是各族人民世代相承、与群众生活密切相关的各种传统文化表现形式和文化空间。非物质文化遗产既是历史发展的见证，又是珍贵的、具有重要价值的文化资源。我国是一个历史悠久的文明古国，不仅有大量的物质文化遗产，而且有丰富的非物质文化遗产。我国各族人民在长期生产生活实践中创造的丰富多彩的非物质文化遗产，是中华民族智慧与文明的结晶，是连结民族情感的纽带和维系国家统一的基础。保护和利用好我国非物质文化遗产，对落实科学发展观，实现经济社会的全面、协调、可持续发展具有重要意义。非物质文化遗产的普查，是国家在21世纪初进行的一次大规模的文化普查，是掌握全国及各地区非物质文化遗产蕴藏状况和了解民情民心的重要手段。普查所得的资料和数据，作为全面分析国情的重要资料之一，是国家或地区主管机构制定文化政策乃至制定国策的重要依据。非物质文化遗产普查又是对非物质文化遗产进行有效地保护，对濒危的非物质文化遗产进行抢救的基础。因此，根据国务院统一部署，对全国各地区的非物质文化遗产所进行的普查，无论对非物质文化遗产的继承和发展，还是对国情的调查，都具有重要意义。