China will build an 840-million-word-long database of oral folk literature to better preserve its cultural heritage.

Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society (CFLAS) plans to spend four years reorganizing and digitalizing the fairy tales, poems, songs, proverbs and riddles it has collected over the past 60 years across the nation, Feng Jicai, chairman of the society, said at the project's launch ceremony Thursday.

The country's folk oral literature will be lost forever if not recorded and digitalized, Feng said. Anthologies of folk literature have been published before but the CFLAS realizes that digitalization is the best way to keep the heritage.

The CFLAS will continue its first-hand collection work to constantly enlarge the database, Feng said.

The database will be a convenient way for netizens to enjoy China's cultural heritage, said Wang Jinqiang, deputy director of the Folk Literature and Art Research Institute, told Xinhua Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2010)