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Beijing Forum 2007: The Inspiration of
Human Heritage on the Progress of
Civilizations PKU NEWS 2007--11--10
By Zhang Ningfang
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=194625834
Peking University, Beijing, Nov. 2, 2007: The first panel of ―The Inspiration of Human
Heritage on the Progress of Civilizations‖ was held at Jilin Hall, the Great Hall of the
People on Nov, 2nd, 2007. Scholars gave their keynote speeches on the
conservation of cultural heritage from different angles.
Shan Jixiang of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China, gave a
speech on ―the function and status of Government in Cultural Heritage
Conservation‖. Michael Petzet, President of International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS), a non-governmental organization, introduced ―conversation politics
in a globalized world‖. He said that the basic concern for the conservation was the
preservation of authentic historical evidence. However, how to keep a balance
between monument conservation and new architecture building was a problem
confronting us. Therefore, monument protection and conservation should be viewed
not only from the perspective of cultural politics but also from environmental,
economic and socio-political perspectives. Fan Jinshi, from Dunhuang Research
Institute, took Dunhuang as an example to talk about Cooperative Conservation by
International Collaboration. She emphasized that we should keep a balance between
protection and exploration and take advantage of International collaboration in our
conservation efforts. The fourth speech was given by Jeremy Whitehand, professor
from University of Birmingham. He mainly focused on the idea of urban landscape
heritage. Zhao Hui, Dean on School of Archaeology of PKU, introduced the
construction of cultural heritage subject system in university education. He described
the status quo of courses on cultural heritage and gave some suggestion on further
development of education on this subject.
The keynote speeches are followed by a round-table discussion on heritage
preservation in the context of diversified development. Bernd von Droste, Former
Assistant Director General of UNESCO and Founding Director of the UNESCO
World Heritage Centre in Paris, Mohammad Rafique Mughal, Professor of
Archaeology and Heritage Management, Boston University, USA, Former Director
General of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Pakistan and Advisor in
Archaeology to the Government of Bahrain, Chen Changdu, Professor from PKU,
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