More than 150 participants gathered at the International Academic Lecture Hall at the Renmin University of China Law School on July 4, 2009. What attracted them was the Forum on Cultural Promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the first ever CC interactive event on the subject of Traditional Chinese Culture in China Mainland. This was the first forum in a planned series on Knowledge Sharing and Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage initiated by Creative Commons China Mainland and the Kongbohua TCM School.

The forum was organized by Renmin University of China Law School, Creative Commons China Mainland, and Kongbohua TCM School. It was sponsored by the Ford Foundation.

The forum consisted of various activities, including presentation sessions and round table discussions on the subject of Knowledge Sharing and Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A highlight of the forum was the release of the first ever CC licensed book in the Chinese Mainland, Kong Bohua TCM Family Educational and Clinical Chronicle. The forum featured an array of distinguished speakers and participants, coming from various backgrounds such as law, cultural studies, traditional Chinese medicine, the IT sector, government and media.

Professor Dayuan Han, Dean of Renmin University of China Law School, Professor Zhipei Jiang，Former Chief Justice of IPR Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court and Professor of Renmin University of China Law School, Mr. Rui Yang, Senior officer from the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Lingqian Kong, Founder of Kongbohua TCM School, Mr. Peizong Feng, Vice President of the Publisher Association of China and Professor Chunyan Wang of Renmin University of China Law School and Creative Commons China Mainland were the featured speakers. Other notable speakers included representatives from the China Academy of Chinese Medicine Science, the University of Chinese Medicine of China, the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, the Chemical Industry Press, China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine and many others.

In addition to the release of the first CC licensed Chinese book, other highlights at the Forum included the appearance of many prominent senior Chinese medicine doctors who engaged in an interactive, interdisciplinary discussion.

One outcome of the Forum was agreement among the participants on the importance of providing tools and platforms to enable the preservation and further development of the abundant culture heritage of China. It was also agreed that the approach of Creative Commons is an appropriate solution for facilitating the sharing and development of traditional Chinese culture.

One of the memorable moments at the Forum was when Lingqian Kong, the founder of Kong Bohua TCM School, talked about his grandfather, Kong Bohua, who was one of the four most famous TCM masters in China. He said his grandfather was very aware of the important of TCM education and culture sharing decades ago. “The further development of TCM relies mainly on letting more people know and share the cultural history behind it. We are pleased to get to know a perfect platform for this like CC China Mainland so as to share and disseminate Chinese culture”, said Lingqian Kong.

Journalists from more than twenty major Chinese media organizations were represented at the Forum. The event was widely covered in various major newspapers and other news outlet in China, such as the Guangming Daily, the Legal Daily, China TCM Daily, the Beijing Daily ,
China Radio International, and the Beijing TV Station. More than one hundred major web sites, including Xinhua Net, China News Net, People Net, Sina.com, and Sohu.com, posted stories on their sites about the Forum on Knowledge Sharing and Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture.