“To protect the cultural heritage of all mankind is actually to protect our peaceful and prosperous world today.”On October 16, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At the opening of the conference, Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum and the top 20th delegate, shared the role of cultural relics and museums in cultural exchanges from more than 30 years of practice and growth experience before the opening of the conference.
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Speaking of the Palace Museum’s new thinking in strengthening exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations in the new era, Wang xudong said that the Palace Museum shoulders the historical mission of protecting and promoting the fine traditional Chinese culture carried by the Palace Museum. We have put forward “four visions”: to build a world-class museum, a model of world cultural heritage protection, a leader in the integration of culture and tourism, and a “meeting room” for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. Such a mission is impossible to accomplish only by the Palace Museum, which requires the participation of all sectors of society and even international counterparts. The “four visions” also need to be constantly learned from their international counterparts, including domestic counterparts.
“As a Chinese cultural ‘meeting room’ for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, it is our very important vision and our very important mission. We have some plans, and we are constantly improving them. The first is to exchange exhibitions. We can ‘go out’ and also introduce cultural relics from other countries to the Palace Museum for exhibition, and even plan cross-cultural comparative exhibitions together. I think such exhibitions may be more meaningful.”Wang Xudong introduced that the second is academic exchange. After five sessions of” Taihe Forum “, scholars from different ancient civilized countries were invited to participate in such academic exchange, learning and dialogue, to show the achievements of civilization of the nation and country. The third is personnel communication. Communication is a two-way way. We have launched the “Taihe Scholars Program”, which allows scholars of the Palace Museum, especially young scholars, to “go out” to study and communicate in museums, universities and cultural institutions in various countries around the world, and tell China’s stories with their international counterparts. At the same time, we also invited experts and scholars from various countries around the world to the Palace Museum for research, and to see the Chinese civilization carried by the Palace Museum from their perspective.
Through such an communication, our scholars can tell stories of other countries, and international scholars can go back to tell stories of China. Such mutual understanding and communication will definitely increase the trust between countries and among the people in the academic and civil fields. Only in this way can the estrangement and speculation be eliminated. We are more about understanding each other, and respect different civilizations, customs, and even the diversity of religions and cultures.
“In addition, the Palace Museum has not only trained China’s cultural relics protection and museum talents for international organizations, but also expanded to the international level. Young scholars from different countries can learn about Chinese culture through the training platform, and at the same time, they can also exchange the cultures from different countries during the training process. We look for more of the same place, and we save those things that may be different, starting from the young people. I think the protection of cultural relics and cultural exchanges will certainly play an important role in increasing mutual understanding and respect among the people of all countries in the world, because cultural relics and museums are Bridges connecting the past, the present and the future.”Wang Xudong said.
(Xu Xiuli)