Last week I had the occasion to visit the Hong Kong Palace Museum to attend a talk by Dr Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing. His talk was a guided tour to the different parts of the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of the consecutive Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
After the Qing Dynasty ended, the Imperial Palace was turned into a museum. Apart from giving the attendees a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of the imperial family and the herculean task of preservation and reconstruction by tens of thousands of professionals, craftsmen and laborers, we were reminded of the great value of our cultural heritage, which is well known for its receptiveness to foreign cultures and accommodating character.
The title of the talk could mean two things. It could mean: “Let us work together to protect and guard the Palace Museum that belongs to all humanity.” Alternatively, it could mean: “The Palace Museum: our partner to protect and guard humanity.” The first interpretation is probably what was intended. But the second interpretation is no less true.
I have long believed that as humans we should all open our minds to what other cultures and ethnicities can teach us. There are always both valuable things and less-valuable things in every culture. The idea is that we should adopt anything that enriches our lives and avoid prejudice. At the same time, we give credit where it is due, admitting that we have imported many foreign ideas. For example, Buddhism came from ancient India, but the Chinese have adopted it and it has become very much an important part of Chinese culture. Christianity is known to have entered China as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907), as an eighth-century stone tablet known as the Xi’an Stele testifies that Christians had come to Xi’an in 635 and were allowed to establish places of worship and to spread their faith. We believe in peaceful dialogues and open-hearted exchange. Just as we believe that we should be receptive to good ideas and new things from any corner of the earth, so we also believe that we should share our good ideas with other civilizations. “Clash of Civilizations” has never been a problem for the Chinese. It would, however, be a problem if one civilization thinks it is superior and tries to dominate other civilizations. To the Chinese, every civilization has something to offer, and the world will be much better off if we are open-minded and learn from each other.
The Chinese culture is distinguished by such phrases as “All under heaven are one family”, “Within the four seas, all men are brothers”, “All under heaven work for common good”, and “The sea is large enough to accommodate all rivers.” Historically, most dynasties adopted a policy of being friendly with neighbors. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), the Silk Road trade routes were already established.
In the talk, Dr Wang showed us some Western artifacts that constituted part of the 1.86 million items in the Palace Museum holdings. He stressed that the Western artifacts were gifts from visitors from foreign countries, unlike the Chinese artifacts that are now part of the holdings of museums in the West, which were mostly seized by Western powers as they plundered their way to occupy or colonize militarily weaker nations.
Apart from the accommodating nature of Chinese culture, another character that stands out is the longing of the Chinese people for peace and for inner reflections. For example, martial arts in Chinese is wushu. The wu in wushu is a Chinese character that consists of two radicals that mean to stop or prevent wars. Sun Tzu’s well-known The Art of War is very much pro-peace. But as the then-Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, pointed out years ago in a speech to the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College, that following Sun Tzu, “China has the deterrence and wisdom to win without fighting. But if needed, China has the courage and capability to win through fighting.” As for inner reflections, all the three predominant schools of thought in China — Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism — put great emphasis on inner reflections, humility and self-cultivation. Despite what many in the West claim, the People’s Republic of China today is not making any new territorial claims. China’s claims about the South China Sea are the same claims that the Republic of China had made when it joined the United Nations as a founding member on Oct 24, 1945. At the time, the ROC’s claims were not contested. Atlantic Council senior fellow Robert Manning was disingenuous when he admonished “China’s expansive territorial claims and maritime harassment of other powers.”
In conclusion, Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s work in bringing the Palace Museum to Hong Kong must be counted as one of her major achievements during her tenure as chief executive. The Hong Kong Palace Museum is a gift and a messenger to Hong Kong and to the world.
The author is director of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.