Young people are the hope and future of the country’s cause and national rejuvenation, and their mission and responsibility carry the future and destiny of the new journey of strengthening the country. In the process of young people growing up and becoming talents, the nourishment and infiltration of excellent traditional Chinese culture cannot be ignored; The continuation of culture and the promotion and inheritance of spirit are integrated into the genetic code of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization, and are perpetuated from generation to generation.
I have been working in the cultural heritage protection industry for a long time, and I deeply feel that the protection of cultural heritage is not an end, and the use is not an end, but the real purpose is to inherit it – the object of inheritance is the present and the future. And young people are the most active and vigorous force in the whole society.
When working in the Palace Museum, what I feel most deeply is that young people are increasingly fond of the ancient Forbidden City and the young Palace Museum. The old and the young are no longer separated by ravines and looked at each other from afar, but love and respect, and walk hand in hand. An important force in communicating between the two, including the help of young programs such as “I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City”, “National Treasure”, “Shangxin, Forbidden City” and so on. These programs have opened up channels for us to have conversations with young people, so that they can start paying attention to the Forbidden City, approaching the Forbidden City, enjoying the Forbidden City culture, and bringing the Forbidden City culture home.
The Forbidden City is just one of China’s many World Heritage Sites, and the vast land of China is also full of shining heritage treasures that also need to be noticed, discovered, recognized and understood. Fortunately, today, young people’s enthusiasm for paying attention to the excellent traditional Chinese culture is growing and flourishing.
Allowing more young people to understand, recognize and fall in love with the excellent traditional Chinese culture through the window of world heritage, and become a firm guardian and inheritor, is the proposition entrusted by the times to heritage workers, and it is also the mission of the times that we must practice.
Get rid of the “high cold style” and be a cultural innovator
I have always had a wish, that is, to integrate World Heritage into the real life of the people, let more young people fall in love with Chinese traditional culture, and let China’s World Heritage World Heritage go to the world with a vivid cultural attitude. For this vision, I have toured hundreds of lectures and written more than 70 books on secondary school and college campuses around the world over the decades. But how big is the spread?
The documentary “I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City” has 90 million views as soon as it was launched, and we need to spread Chinese traditional culture in various forms. This is why we are determined to focus on the inheritance of world cultural heritage through “Thousands of Miles of Riding – China in Heritage” – to adapt to the updated information technology and forms of the times, so as to do cultural dissemination to the public, especially young people.
World Heritage is little known because of its history and high professional threshold, and because of its outstanding value and unique status. How can World Heritage move away from the “high and cold” of high and low, build a bridge between knowledge export and public understanding, and build a link between historical traceability and contemporary needs? This requires intentionality and innovation.
There are three key words: First, “documentary”, that is, walking, communicating, visiting, experiencing and practicing in a down-to-earth manner, going deep into the heritage sites with different characteristics and values, truly displaying the unique landscape of the heritage sites, vividly presenting the humanistic picture, revealing the historical secrets of the original place, and speculatively discussing the current development.
The second is “interaction”, which narrows the psychological distance with documentary objects through interaction, and also narrows the distance with the public. The documentary objects include the watchmen of the world, historical revelers, archaeological excavators, admiring tourists, happy residents and other groups.
The third is “variety show”, how to express academic knowledge, how to cut into the interactive process, and how to make the world heritage considerable, readable, appreciative and tasteable. Through comprehensive art forms such as in-studio interpretation, outdoor communication, interactive participation, immersive experience and technological implantation, we build a contextual context that can attract young audiences in the new era.
We know that today’s young people have their own knowledge reserves, ways of thinking, thinking characteristics and access to information, and they are no longer satisfied with indoctrination and textbook preaching. So, what we want to start is their cultural tour, philosophical tour and new travel in the World Heritage Site.
Inspire the youthfulness of World Heritage
In fact, the World Heritage sector has always focused on young people and related topics. Since 1995, each session of the World Heritage Conference has held a World Heritage Youth Forum to focus on the concerns and reflections of young people. World Heritage education programmes, volunteer projects and prizes around the world also include young people as one of the main target groups, carrying out activities, learning lessons learned and recommending practices.
In view of this, we have set the Heritage Guide Group as the “Miles Youth Group”. On the one hand, in the face of the long-standing and profound Chinese civilization, we have the awe of “we are all teenagers”; On the other hand, taking into account the differences in age and experience of each member, in order to enhance the resonance of intergenerational dialogue, we encourage young people to express their views on World Heritage from their own perspectives, and also bring more possibilities for the dissemination of World Heritage culture.
At the same time, we have planned some events that are both public participation, cultural ritual and artistic expression. For example, Luoyang’s “Five Dynasties Chinese Costume Restoration Show”, Jingdezhen’s “Porcelain Universe Exhibition”, and Yangzhou’s “Domino Grand Canal” transform traditional culture into a fashion perspective, a combination of innovation and ingenuity, and the presentation of modern installations; The drone performance in Anyang Yinxu, the aerial “dialogue with Beijingers” in Zhoukoudian, and the flag-raising ceremony on Beijing’s central axis transformed the spirit of World Heritage into a tribute to contemporary times, mankind, and people from all walks of life. These circle-breaking expressions that stimulate curiosity and express youthful power have attracted more young people’s attention here, showing the vitality of traditional culture.
The pyrotechnics and aesthetics of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage is not only ancient, but also modern and contemporary, it is not frozen in a historical stage, but passed down through generations; The value of World Heritage is not only material, but also intangible and intertwined; The protection and management of World Heritage is not a castle in the air, but the efforts and love shown by many heritage workers and local people for these heritages.
All these make the World Heritage rich in “fireworks” and show the most vivid side. Therefore, we walked into the city life of the World Heritage site, excavated the lifestyle in the World Heritage Site, explored the past and present of the original place of the heritage, and awakened the deep resonance in our hearts; They also walked into the daily work and life of World Heritage conservators, showing their feelings of home and country in the protection and management of World Heritage sites, and promoting the spirit of responsibility for land conservation and craftsmen of great countries.
Each heritage has a unique beauty, discover the heritage from an aesthetic point of view, and present the colorful landscape of the Chinese land and the infinite charm of Chinese culture through “beauty” in an all-round way, which is in line with the meaning of cultural inheritance and youth. The forest symphony concert in Wuyishan, the poetry conference in Lushan… Cultural heritage not only tells the simple emotions of Chinese perfection and perfection, but also carries our sustenance for a beautiful China and a better life.
Through walking, pursuing and seeking, we present China’s unique landscape and historical and cultural context, telling the story of generations Chinese to find and watch the roots of Chinese culture, highlighting the cultural spirit since ancient times, linking the value of history and reality, and paying attention to the current cultural expression.
Looking at the development of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years, the ideology, humanistic spirit and moral norms contained in it have given birth to excellent traditional culture. We should fully combine the requirements of the times, inherit and innovate the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and take it as the soil and source for conserving the excellent qualities of contemporary youth.
With proactive communication momentum, we let the audience, especially the young group, empathize with the essence of Chinese excellent traditional culture, deeply experience Chinese characteristics in the evolution of cognition, understanding, perception, love and inheritance, strengthen cultural self-confidence, enhance national self-esteem and pride, and generate continuous patriotic motivation.
(The author is the president of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics and the director of the Academic Committee of the Palace Museum)