Source: Global Times-Global Network
[Global Times-Global Network Report Reporter Zhao Juezhang] Wang Xudong, a representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the president of the Palace Museum , accepted joint interviews from domestic and foreign media reporters through video at the News Center of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on the evening of the 20th. Wang Xudong said that the continuous inheritance of Chinese civilization for five thousand years has given the Chinese nation firm cultural confidence. But this cultural confidence does not come from a "closed culture", but is forged through continuous interaction with other civilizations.
In 2019, Wang Xudong, who had worked in the Dunhuang Museum for 28 years, was transferred to the position of the President of the Palace Museum. "I am very honored to serve these two world cultural heritage sites," Wang Xudong said that although the history of the Palace Museum is less than a hundred years, the heritage managed is the 600-year-old Forbidden City and its collection of 5,000-year-old cultural relics, carrying the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization.
Wang Xudong said that the Palace Museum shoulders the historical mission of truly and completely protecting and responsibly inheriting and promoting the excellent traditional Chinese culture carried by the Palace Museum. At present, the Palace Museum has proposed the "four major visions": a world-class museum, a model for the protection of world cultural heritage, a leader in the integration of culture and tourism, and a "living room" of Chinese culture for exchanges and mutual learning.
In 30 years of cultural relics protection experience, Wang Xudong has participated in or presided over a number of international cooperation projects. In the process of exchanges and cooperation with scholars from different countries and regions, Wang Xudong felt the uniqueness of Chinese culture more. "We must be firm in cultural confidence," Wang Xudong said. "The Chinese nation can reach this day and stand tall among the nations of the world again, because behind us there is a continuous inheritance of five thousand years of civilization. This inheritance gives us firm cultural confidence."
Wang Xudong also emphasized that this cultural confidence comes from the continuous absorption of other ethnic and other regional cultures, not a culture formed by closure. Wang Xudong believes that to forging new glory of Chinese culture today also requires the continuous absorption of all the achievements of civilization on the basis of our national culture.
According to Wang Xudong, in the field of foreign cultural exchanges, the Palace Museum will continue to plan cultural relics exhibitions, so that the cultural relics of the Palace Museum will go to the world and the cultural relics of the world will come in. At present, the Forbidden City has planned exhibitions in countries including Austria , Italy, France, Afghanistan , Iran , Pakistan and other countries, but it has not yet been realized due to the epidemic. On the other hand, we hope that personnel exchanges can be normalized, so that scholars from other countries, especially young scholars, can enter the Forbidden City to find cultural elements of their own country and nation. We also hope that Chinese scholars can go out with the excellent traditional Chinese culture and learn and exchange.
"We hope that international peers can stay in the Palace Museum for a longer time, not just a few days or weeks of exchange, but hope it can be extended to 3 months to 1 year. We really live in Beijing as a researcher, go to the Palace Museum to work every day, and communicate with our scholars on certain topics of common interest." Wang Xudong said.
In 2022, the interaction between the Forbidden City and the world has added a new window. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Hong Kong Palace Museum was officially opened to the public on July 3. So far, there have been more than 420,000 viewers. Wang Xudong said that this number reflects the love of Hong Kong people for these excellent traditional Chinese cultural relics, and also shows that they hope to have such an opportunity to understand Chinese traditional culture through these cultural relics.
Wang Xudong said that the Hong Kong Palace Museum is a very important platform and window, and plays an irreplaceable role in the construction of the China-Foreign Cultural and Art Exchange Center in Hong Kong. "We not only hope to present the cultural relics of the Forbidden City through the Hong Kong Palace Museum to show the excellent traditional Chinese culture carried by the Forbidden City and its cultural relics, but also plan some cultural relics dialogue exhibitions with other countries (with regions)." During the interview, Wang Xudong said in response to a question from a Taiwanese media reporter that Beijing Palace Museum , Taipei Palace Museum, and Hong Kong Palace Museum can jointly plan some exhibitions in the future."The Forbidden City on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can be said to be a brother. The cultural relics of the Forbidden City in Taipei come from Beijing Palace Museum ." Wang Xudong said that the exchanges and cooperation between the Forbidden City on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were frequent and in-depth, but due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, these exchanges and cooperation were temporarily interrupted. He believes that with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the Forbidden City on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will further strengthen exchanges in terms of scholars, cultural relics, academics, etc. in the future. "Through these exchanges, we will definitely promote mutual understanding among scholars and even between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. I am very much looking forward to visiting Taipei Palace Museum as soon as possible."
