Taking the Road of Cultural Heritage Protection with Chinese Characteristics - Interview with Li Qun, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 25 Title: Taking the Road of Protecting Cultural Heritage with Chinese Characteristics -- An Interview with Li Qun, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage

Xinhua News Agency reporters Shi Yucen and Wang Peng

On the 25th, at the 44th World Heritage Conference held in Fuzhou, "Quanzhou: World Marine Trade Center of Song and Yuan China" successfully passed the deliberations and was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List. What is the significance of this successful application? What experiences in the application for heritage are worth learning? In the future, how can we better protect this precious cultural treasure? Around these issues, Li Qun, vice minister of culture and tourism and director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, accepted an exclusive interview with a Xinhua reporter.

It empirically proves the glorious history of exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese civilization and civilizations of other countries in the world

Q: What is the significance of the project's inscription on the World Heritage List?

A: First of all, the project empirically proves the history of exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese civilization and civilizations of other countries in the world. As an important window for China's foreign commercial trade, material exchange and personnel exchanges during the Song and Yuan dynasties, Quanzhou, with the help of the prosperity and development of maritime commerce and trade, with the attitude of equality, mutual trust and dialogue and exchange, promoted the spread of China's ancient advanced agricultural technology, literary classics and philosophical ideas to overseas, providing important nourishment for the development of civilization and culture in various countries. At the same time, with an open and inclusive broad mind, the Chinese civilization accepts the harmonious coexistence of diverse cultures in Quanzhou, and actively learns from and draws on the achievements of civilization in various countries and regions.

Secondly, the project demonstrates the important achievements of the development of Chinese civilization and human civilization. The project is composed of 22 representative monuments, sites and their associated environments and spaces, with high historical, artistic, scientific, social and cultural value, revealing the reasons why Quanzhou became a maritime hub of Trade Networks in East Asia and Southeast Asia during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, showing Quanzhou's outstanding contributions to the economic and cultural development of Asia and the common progress of human society in the 10th to 14th centuries, and embodying the spiritual characteristics of the ancient working people of China who are tenacious, tenacious and courageous to innovate.

Around this application for heritage, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage guided the local government to strengthen the protection of Quanzhou's archaeological and historical and cultural heritage, supported high-level professional institutions such as the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, and the China Architectural Design and Research Institute to set up resident workstations or jointly run schools, and worked with the Fujian Museum to carry out archaeological excavations and historical research on important sites in Quanzhou, filling the gap in the archaeology of Quanzhou's ancient city. Promote the establishment of professional archaeological teams at the provincial and municipal levels, formulate and implement archaeological plans and special laws, regulations and plans for the protection of ancient cities, and organize the implementation of a number of cultural relics protection, display and utilization projects, so that the important historical sites, ruins and the overall style of quanzhou ancient cities have been properly protected.

In addition, the successful application for heritage in this project provides an example for future international cooperation in the field of world cultural heritage declaration in China. In 2018, after the 42nd World Heritage Conference made a decision on the project to be returned to be discussed, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, in accordance with the resolutions of the General Assembly and the opinions of international professional consulting bodies, guided Quanzhou City, professional institutions and the International Council of Monuments and Sites to carry out close cooperation to make major adjustments to the positioning of the Quanzhou project, added 6 new declaration points, reorganized the combination logic of the declaration points, refined and highlighted the universal value, and clearly put forward a new theme based on the important history of China's marine trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and finally ensured the success of the application.

Inheritance declaration is the means, and the protection of inheritance is the end

Q: What are the successful experiences of this application?

A: The success of this application for heritage benefits from the rich experience accumulated by China in the declaration and protection management of world heritage over the years, and from the professional and technical route and solid work foundation that fit the characteristics of the project itself, which are mainly manifested in the following four aspects:

Adhere to the professional-led and academic-led work ideas. In recent years, the difficulty and challenges of world heritage nomination have increased. Gaining the understanding and support of international organizations and States parties through solid, high-level professional work is the most effective means of addressing external challenges. Led by the application for heritage, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has organized high-level professional institutions and authoritative experts in China to cooperate with local professional institutions and experts in Fujian and Quanzhou to carry out quanzhou urban archaeology, historical research, value interpretation, planning and management, etc., which has been recognized by the World Heritage Committee and the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

Adhere to the scientific concept of protection first and value priority. Inheritance declaration is the means, and the protection of inheritance is the end. The protection of Quanzhou's series of heritage takes the inheritance of historical and cultural values as the goal, resolutely implements the principle of "minimum intervention" and "research first" protection, guides and encourages the joint participation of archaeology, architecture, cultural relics protection, structural materials and other multidisciplinary joint participation, implements a number of cultural relics protection projects, implements a variety of protection systems for lightning protection, fire prevention and theft prevention, establishes an early warning and emergency response mechanism for natural disasters such as typhoons and floods, and properly protects the outstanding universal value and authenticity of monuments and sites.

Strong support from the local government. Since the early 1980s, Fujian Province and Quanzhou City have realized the importance of protecting the style of ancient cities, and have always taken "protecting ancient cities and developing new areas" as the guiding ideology of urban planning and protection construction, strengthened protection legislation and planning and design, promoted the "five inclusions" of cultural heritage protection, properly protected the overall style of ancient cities, and set a model for the protection of famous historical and cultural cities.

Encourage social participation and insist on benefiting people's livelihood. Making cultural heritage a shared memory and common property of the public is fundamental to sustainable conservation. On the one hand, by promoting the opening of heritage sites to the public, implementing measures such as environmental improvement around the heritage and improving the living environment, etc., the living conditions of the local people are improved; on the other hand, through the establishment of a heritage identification interpretation system, the construction of heritage exhibition halls and other measures, the public's awareness of heritage is enriched, and the consciousness of the whole society to participate in protection is stimulated.

The protection of world cultural heritage has a long way to go

Q: What will we do around the tasks of follow-up protection management and so on?

A: Being inscribed on the World Heritage List is not only an honor, but also puts forward higher requirements for the protection and management system of heritage, which requires the heritage site to shoulder a glorious mission.

In order to better study and protect the historical and cultural heritage of Quanzhou, in accordance with the suggestions of international organizations, we will include the entire ancient city of Quanzhou into the buffer zone of the World Heritage, and in the next step, we will guide Quanzhou City to continue to strengthen the archaeological research and protection of historical and cultural heritage in accordance with the requirements of the resolution of the World Heritage Committee, do a good job in the revision of the management plan and the preparation of a series of special plans for heritage protection, refine the management requirements and control indicators of the heritage area and the buffer zone and incorporate it into the management of the land spatial planning system, and improve the long-term coordinated management mechanism. Strengthen the safety supervision and daily maintenance of heritage, explore the mode of protection and inheritance of living heritage, and build a more perfect protection management system for this complex series of heritage.

Properly protecting and sustaining the world heritage as a precious wealth of all mankind is the solemn commitment of the Chinese Government as a State party to the World Heritage Convention. As a world heritage country, China should shoulder more international responsibilities and obligations in the field of world cultural heritage. In the future, we will further strengthen in-depth cooperation with UNESCO and relevant international professional institutions, further promote the concept of World Heritage protection, and share the Chinese experience and Chinese concept we have accumulated in the protection of world cultural heritage to our colleagues in various forms, and work with other countries for a better future.