China nod for Asian heritage perspective

If most people do not know, UNESCO formed their guidelines to approved their World Heritage lists based on their committee members mainly constituted of European countries. Most of such guidelines were formed straight after the 2 World Wars which devastated our heritage globally, making us lose many valuable treasure Man created in thier History make civalization.

Recently, China and Malaysia raises issues in concern to the guidelines whether Asian countries should follow the same methods follow by the western counterparts. As beliefs and values defers countries to countries, regions to regions, some of the Chapters and guidelines offered by UNESCO might not be catered to the needs of Asian countries. Facing such issues, Japan raises their voices in accordance to the meaning of authencity and wrote the Declaration of Authentication in Nara Chapter as a guideline. It raises certain issues in which heritage can be intangible, and preservation of building in accordance to what it is does not mean as much as the intangible factor in which spirit, values, culture, customs might hold the foundation to the foundation of what A national of ethinic value might believe in. This is due to their belief that their Shinto Temple can be rebuilt, but their beliefs go beyond just a simple Architecture in form.

The Kiwis believes that their heritage site should be left to nature, in which if the nature deems their houses should be decayed and return to Mother Nature, so be it. This is a code of conduct and respect to the nature in which they deeply believed in.

Poland was razed and destroyed during the world war. However, their city made it into the World Heritage Site as well because it goes beyond physical form, but the outreach of their fighting spirit and strong National Identity to the world.

Still, we must take note that nothing is simple, and daily we are facing loss in heritage all over the world, whether it is the last ethinic race, the last form of communication and culture, or the last folk song known in a region. Time is the essence in preventing further loss. But we all have our own limitations in how much we can do.

If there should be further implications and chapters added into the guidelines, and if it is for a good cause, I feel it will always be beneficial to the world globally. After all, everything is about preseving our own uniqueness and not be tainted too much by the effects of globalisation.

However, we must always consider backwards: are all this done for commercial purposes, political purposes? How many times a site enlisted falls into bad management? How many times it all fall back into an empty pit in which so much more were lost due to the enlistment? I welcome all comments in relation to this topic. You can leave comments and ways of contact in which we can further discuss this.

Let's hope what Malaysia is doing is not solely because they want to promote Malaysia Tourism Year 2007.

source: the star

KUALA LUMPUR: China supports Malaysia’s stand that Asian countries be assessed according to their own criteria for Unesco's Heritage Cities listing.

China’s Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng said Unesco should look at the Asian perspective when according such status, based on the specific environmental, historical, geographical locations and the nature of cultural heritages of the countries in Asia.

Sun, who headed a delegation that paid a courtesy call on Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim at the Kuala Lumpur Craft Complex here on Friday, said Asian countries, which shared many similarities, should work together to ensure that Unesco accepts the suggestion by Malaysia.

On Thursday, Dr Rais had raised Malaysia's proposal to China for Asia to have its own version of “Unesco” to accord such status but the matter has yet to be decided as the Eastern Ministers of Culture have not met.

Dr Rais said there should be specific criteria for Asian countries, and that it was not right for Unesco to compare Asia to the Western nations.

“Our suggestion will be handed over to Unesco soon. It is important to give them an idea on how differently Asian countries look at artefacts or heritage sites, compared to European and other non-Asian countries.

“If there is a benchmark set for Asian countries, we will have more heritage sites,” he told reporters after receiving the Chinese delegation.

Dr Rais said he discussed training programmes related to culture and heritage with Sun, adding that China had vast experience in the conservation of buildings, cultural and heritage artefacts.