AACHC, Asia's contribution to the world on cultural heritage protection

China Cambodia Photo: VCG

China signed the Joint Statement on the Asian Alliance for Cultural Heritage Conservation with Afghanistan and Pakistan in May 2021. This was the first document for bilateral cooperation, marking the alliance's shift from an idea to an action. 

The Asian Dialogue for Cultural Heritage Conservation was held in China in October 2021 to launch the Initiative for the Preservation of Asian Cultural Heritage, with 27 Asian countries signing on.

Since then, fruitful results have been achieved such as the joint establishment of the Asian Alliance for Cultural Heritage Conservation by 10 countries, the Asian Fund for Cultural Heritage Conservation and a program aimed at training outstanding young professionals in cultural heritage conservation. All of these provide mechanisms to promote cooperation, sustainable development and capacity building for this endeavor.

Since 2019, China has conducted activities with other Asian countries concerning cultural relic conservation, archaeology, the application and management of world cultural heritage, academic research into museum collections, cultural exhibitions, the prevention of cultural artifact trafficking and personnel training. Through joint excavations of key ruins along the Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, the programs have helped explore the origin of Asian civilization and the contributions of Chinese civilization to world civilization. For example, the China-Saudi Arabia joint archaeology project at the ruins of Port Serin by the Red Sea in 2016 proved the close ties between ancient China and the Red Sea area and the Arabian Peninsula.

In particular, China, Japan and South Korea, who are close neighbors and share similar geographical conditions and culture, have carried out many cooperative activities such as bilateral talks, cultural seminars, joint concerts, tourism and art education forums.

"China, Japan and South Korea have shared cultural beliefs. This is not only embodied by the Buddhist religion, but also the three countries' similar 'value systems.' They all focus on making developments based on traditional culture," Liu Zheng, a member of the China Cultural Relics Academy, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Asia is a major birthplace of human civilization. The close cooperation and mutual learning between different civilizations in Asia will be of great importance to the conservation of its cultural heritage and shows the mutual respect, open-mindedness, and inclusiveness of Asian countries toward each other. It has provided a model for collaborations between different civilizations for the whole world to learn from.