On October 27th, Asian Dialogue for Cultural Heritage Conservation was held in Beijing. It’s organized by China National Cultural Heritage Administration and Beijing Municipal People’s Government. The mission of the conservation was to implement the statement that “China is willing to start a protection of Asian cultural heritage with other countries to offer necessary support to better inherit civilizations” brought up by Chinese president Xi Jinping in Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations. The theme of the conservation was “promoting dialogue among civilizations and shaping Asia’s future”. It would continuously promote the protection of Asian cultural heritage and start a new chapter for Asian to improve communication and mutual learning among civilizations.
The conservation was held online. Hu Heping, minister of culture and tourism, and Yang Bin, vice mayor of Beijing, delivered a speech. Li Qun, vice minister of culture and tourism and director of National Cultural Heritage Administration, made the keynote speech. Attendees included high-level representatives of 5 international organizations, including deputy director-general of the UNESCO; 20 cultural ministers from 36 Asian countries, 19 ambassadors to China and high-level officials, director of Home Affairs Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and director of Department of Social and Cultural Affairs of Macao SAR Government of the People's Republic of China.
Hu Heping said that holding Asian Dialogue for Cultural Heritage Conservation was a practical action to implement Xi Jinping’s advocation, to support the protection of the cultural heritage of Asian countries and to promote Asia’s amazing civilization. Asian countries shared a piece of land, close people-to-people connection and a mutually-dependent destiny. Protecting, inheriting and making good use of Asian cultural heritage was a common responsibility for all Asian countries. In recent years, Asian countries attached great importance to the protection of cultural heritage and conducted a series of effective communication and cooperation. He expected that the conservation could be an opportunity to enhance dialogue between civilizations, to shape Asia’s future and to protect cultural heritage in Asia. Hu Heping advocated that protection should be put on top of the agenda; relationship coordination should be carried out between cultural heritage protection and city construction, ecological improvement and tourism development and protection were mutually integrated, so as to let the light of Asian civilization shine on the road of human civilization. Relating government departments needed to promote reasonable exploitation, research and interpretation of cultural heritage, presentation and development of cultural innovative products to realize innovative transformation and development, so as to enable people to share the result of cultural heritage protection. The government needed to continue communication and mutual learning as well as start exchanges and cooperation in all aspects, including joint archaeological study, cultural relics restoration, exhibition, human resource education, cooperative study and joint heritage application.
Li Qun said that Asia was an important originating place of human civilization. The close cooperation and mutual learning of Asian countries were significant for the protection of Asian cultural relics and for the shaping of a common future for Asian civilization. China National Cultural Heritage Administration valued the vital function of cultural heritage in the communication and mutual learning among civilizations, so it participated in the exploration of Asian civilization development, the protection of Asia civilization, the interpretation of the value of Asian civilization and mutual learning among Asian civilizations as well as conducted wide-spread and effective cooperation with Asian countries in joint archaeological research, protection and restoration of historical site, application and management of world cultural heritage museum exhibition and communication and other areas. Li Qun advocated that China would like to see the conservation as an opportunity to work with Asian countries and relating international organizations to protect Asian cultural heritage, to build a cooperation platform, to safeguard civilization achievement, to improve protection level, to promote sustainable development, to gather strength from youth, so as to accelerate the development of Asian cultural heritage protection and to inject new and stronger cultural power to construct an Asian community with a shared future.
Yang Bin said that as the capital, Beijing was a famous historical and cultural city in China and in the world. For a long time, Beijing had been sticking to sustainable development and scientific planing in the integral protection and restoration of the old city led by the protection and world cultural heritage application of Beijing central axis as well as the inheritance, protection and exploitation of the regions of three mountains and five parks and “the three cultural belts”, so as to build a city to promote outstanding traditional Chinese culture for other cities to follow. Relating departments needed to stick to systematic protection, devoted to construct a cultural protection system with features of the capital city, safeguard the safety of cultural relics in the capital of China and build a “city of museum”. The government needed to see people as the center; devote to create a convenient and environment suitable for living and increase people’s livelihood. Yang Bing said that as the city to carry out the first Asian Dialogue for Cultural Heritage Conservation, Beijing would play the leading role to carry out the 2019 Beijing consensus reached in Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations to carry out the protection of Asian cultural heritage and to participate in communication and cooperative research, so as to make new contribution to promote dialogue among civilizations and to shape a future for Asia. Yang Bin welcome all guests to experience the charm of Beijing central axis.
In the opening ceremony, “Asian Cultural Heritage Protection Alliance” established by 10 Asian countries, including China, Armenia, Cambodia, ROK, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. China also set up the Asian Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation and the plan of “Youth Ambassador of Asian Cultural Heritage Protection”.
The dialogue would continue to October 28th, experts and scholars from 18 Asian countries would participate in 26 keynote speeches, including “cultural heritage supporting Asian sustainable development”, “cultural heritage supporting communications and mutual-learning among Asian civilizations” and “cultural heritage helping to cope with future challenge for Asia”. The dialogue conference would also establish the “Initiative to Start Asian Cultural Heritage Protection”.