The Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou, Fujian province, was built by Arab traders during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).[Photo provided to China Daily]
A Tsinghua professor discusses the value of exchanges to such realms as cultural communication, heritage preservation and innovation, Fang Aiqing reports.
Cultural exchanges and fusion have produced creative thinking and sustainable development, Lyu Zhou said during a session at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing on May 15. The Tsinghua University architecture professor adds that it's an important starting point to discuss exchanges of Asian cultures and civilizations.
He was speaking at a session titled Safeguarding the Diversity of Asian Civilizations held by the Ministry of Education and UNESCO.
Quanzhou in East China's Fujian province is a notable hub of the ancient Maritime Silk Road and has been a rendezvous point for religious cultures, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Manicheism.
Lyu says the city's Manichean statue is the only one in the world. He points to it as an example of innovative development brought about by cultural exchanges.
He calls for greater support for the application of the Historic Monuments and Sites of Ancient Quanzhou (Zayton) for UNESCO World Heritage listing in a year or two.
Lyu Zhou,Tsinghua University architecture professor.[Photo provided to China Daily]
He also mentions how Buddhist architecture changed after arriving in China.
Buddhist stupas - dome-shaped shrines that house relics - were infused with the local belief that sacred people "dwell on high" and evolved into what became known as tacha - the top part of a pagoda that's seen as a symbol of China's wooden pavilions.
Changes in architectural style followed the voyages of Tang Dynasty (618-907) monk Jianzhen (688-763) to Japan, during which he brought Buddhism to the country.
Chinese silk and porcelain promoted social and economic development along the ancient Silk Road and changed Westerners' lifestyles, while furniture, especially chairs, introduced to China since the Tang Dynasty changed Chinese people's habit of sitting on the ground, Lyu says.
Chinese later infused such furnishings with local aesthetics and craftsmanship, and, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), developed a furniture style that represented a pinnacle of art and skill.
"Cultural exchanges help us develop our own civilizations. It's mutual development rather than diminishing diversity, so that every civilization would benefit through the process. That's why we invite our neighbors to discuss Asian problems together," Lyu told Mobiheritage, an academic WeChat account that focuses on cultural-heritage preservation, after the session.
A Buddhist statue on a stone structure at Luoyang Bridge, a Maritime Silk Road heritage site in Quanzhou.[Photo provided to China Daily]
Jing Feng, chief of the Asia and the Pacific Unit at UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, said in a previous interview with the China News Service that UNESCO has been actively promoting intercultural dialogue as one of its core missions, and it's actively supporting and participating in the CDAC.
He says cooperation in world-heritage preservation provides the CDAC with a good starting point to better present its role as an exchange platform.
Lyu is the director of Tsinghua's National Heritage Center and vice-president of the Chinese National Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites.
In December, he was elected as one of two co-chairs of the intergovernmental coordinating committee on the serial transnational world heritage nomination of the Silk Roads.
The committee, founded in 2009, promotes coordination and cooperation around the protection and management of heritage in 14 countries along the ancient route in recent years.
In 2014, Silk Roads: The Routes Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, which spans 5,000 kilometers from Central China to Central Asia, became UNESCO's first transnational world-heritage site supported by a joint application by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Kizilgaha Beacon Tower, built 2,000 years ago on the ancient Silk Road in Aksu in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.[Photo provided to China Daily]
Lyu has continued tracking World Heritage Committee sessions and examining the development of preservation over the years.
He says China has leapfrogged in many realms, accumulated considerable experience and engaged in international communication.
The way in which social forces have contributed to preservation, in addition to government efforts, have raised new questions, he says. How can stakeholders be mobilized? How can preservation work promote sustainable development and improve quality of life?
Lyu cites the UNESCO site Gulangyu - a historical international settlement in Fujian - as an example of community preservation and effective responses to cultural exchanges.
China needs more time to propose solutions and operational rules for institutionalization, and to align it with social interests, Lyu says.
China is attaching growing importance to expressing cultural-heritage-preservation concepts to the international community.
Lyu is leading the preparations for the application of Beijing's central axis - the roughly 8-km notational line along the city's historical center - to be listed by UNESCO.
The work also includes explorations and discussions with international experts to define heritage's spatial scale in Beijing's historical area.
"The levels, content and ways of communication in international exchanges have been expanded," he says, adding that China is supporting international preservation.
A China-Africa seminar on knowledge sharing and capacity building around world-heritage preservation will be staged in June to promote cooperation, he says.
