The purpose of the "China-US Cultural Forum" is to establish an open, academic and interactive regular dialogue mechanism for China and the United States in the cultural field. Through this mechanism, China and the United States can have dialogues and exchanges on culture-related issues, explore the development mode of culture and art and the protection of cultural heritage in the contemporary context of cultural diversity, deepen the understanding between China and the United States in the fields of culture, art and humanities, promote friendly cooperation between the two sides in the fields of culture, art and humanities, and promote the comprehensive, sustained and in-depth development of cultural exchanges between the two countries.
During the two-day conference, experts and scholars from China and the United States conducted extensive dialogues and in-depth discussions on the central topic of "digital technology and cultural heritage protection", the role of digital technology in heritage protection, and the development of digital technology and contemporary culture.
Minister Cai Wu spoke highly of this academic seminar when meeting with the American delegation. He said: strengthening exchanges and cooperation between cultural departments and institutions of China and the United States conforms to the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples and is conducive to deepening understanding and friendship between the two peoples. The "Sino-American Cultural Forum" seminar jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and the National Humanities Foundation of the United States has played a positive role in promoting cultural exchanges between China and the United States and promoting the combination of digital technology and cultural heritage protection. It not only marks a new stage of cultural exchange and cooperation between China and the United States, but also has far-reaching significance for promoting the development of bilateral relations. He said that the emergence of digital technology and its wide application in the fields of culture, art and humanities will bring unprecedented great changes to the creation, dissemination, research and preservation of human civilization and point out a new direction for the development of human culture. After two days of active and enthusiastic discussion, the seminar achieved fruitful results. Experts attending the meeting had in-depth dialogues and exchanges on cultural diversity, cultural heritage protection and digital information development, shared their experience in using digital technology in cultural heritage protection and research, put forward many innovative academic viewpoints and reached many consensuses. He expressed his belief that the cultural relations between China and the United States have bright prospects and great potential. With the joint efforts of both sides, Sino-US cultural cooperation will surely reach a new level.
Wang Wenzhang, Vice Minister of Culture and President of China Academy of Art, pointed out in his speech at the opening ceremony of the forum: "The China government has always attached importance to the protection of cultural heritage, especially in the use of digital technology to protect cultural heritage, and has done a lot of fruitful work. The Palace Museum and the National Library have made outstanding achievements in using digital technology to protect cultural relics and ancient books. China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center has also carried out many beneficial practices in the protection of intangible cultural heritage, and China Academy of Art has also used digital technology to restore and protect a large number of traditional music resources. We hope that through this Sino-US Cultural Forum, we will conduct extensive scientific and cultural exchanges with the US, tap the outstanding traditional elements and precious heritage of Chinese civilization, and make positive contributions to the harmonious development and peaceful progress of mankind. "
Cole, President of the National Humanities Foundation of the United States, said in his opening speech: "Our two countries will seek further cooperation in supporting humanities and protecting and introducing cultural heritage. I am eagerly looking forward to fruitful and important cultural and academic exchanges between the two countries in the future. Using digital technology can easily solve problems that could not be solved before. In these fields, the great power of digital technology makes us think about new problems and seek new relationships and models that can span time and different substances. At the American Humanities Foundation, we firmly believe that digital technology also has great potential in changing the humanities, and will also change the knowledge, teaching, planning and design of the humanities in the same way. We hope to lead the development of this' new frontier'. "
Zhao Shaohua, Vice Minister of Culture, pointed out in his closing speech: "Strengthening exchanges and cooperation between cultural departments and institutions of China and the United States conforms to the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, helps deepen the understanding and friendship between the two peoples, and has a solid economic, cultural and social foundation. Judging from the size and specifications of the organizers and the depth and breadth of discussions and exchanges, this "China-US Cultural Forum" is a major event in the history of cultural and academic exchanges between China and the United States. It will surely open a more brilliant chapter for Sino-US cultural exchanges! "
Digital Technology: Providing New Space for Cultural Heritage Protection
The development of digital technology has created new technical and material means for the protection, development and display of cultural heritage, and also changed the protection mode of traditional cultural heritage. Mike, director of the traditional music archives department of Indiana University, USA? Kathy pointed out that there are three major problems in audio protection at present: large quantity, degradation and obsolescence. There are three strategies for Indiana University to use digital technology to protect historical archives: migration, copying and confirmation. Kenneth, deputy director of the Digital Research Center for Humanities at the University of Nebraska, USA? Price introduced the construction experience of Whitman hypertext digital database in the United States. Li Wenru, vice president of the Palace Museum in China, pointed out that digital technology is promoting the full realization of the core values of public welfare and publicity in an unprecedented way and speed. The exploration made by the Palace Museum in digital technology exhibition mainly includes: the collection, storage and dissemination of digital information in the Palace Museum, the introduction of digital services synchronized with the exhibition, the comprehensive development of network services, and the development and production of Tianuterus. Chen Li, deputy director of the National Library of China, pointed out that digitalization has provided new development opportunities for the protection of chinese heritage. The completed and ongoing digitization work of the National Library includes: the construction of Chinese bibliographic database, the introduction of CD-ROM database, the digitization of collection characteristic resources and the National Digital Library project. In the process of digitalization of cultural heritage protection, more attention should be paid to the scientific treatment, utilization, management and long-term preservation of resources. Liu Tuo, director of the Institute of Architecture of China Academy of Fine Arts, pointed out that digital technology plays an irreplaceable role in protecting and inheriting the structure and construction skills of disappearing traditional buildings. Professor Zhang Jun of China Communication University believes that digital technology has three main functions in the protection of cultural relics: digital restoration, display and digital archiving.
Digital Technology: Promoting the Development and Utilization of Cultural Heritage
The advanced means of information collection, processing and dissemination brought by digital technology are promoting the development of contemporary civilization and changing the existing form of human culture in an unprecedented way and speed. Du Baichuan, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in China, pointed out that digitalization is to establish a new service system, operation system and new development platform to cope with the competition from other transmission means and other new media. The focus of digitalization of radio, film and television in China is the transformation of traditional radio, film and television from analog to digital, and actively expand new services and new media. Wang Lu, director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Database Management Center of the Chinese Academy of Art, introduced the relevant experience of the "China Intangible Cultural Heritage Digital Museum" and other art research institutes in intangible cultural protection. Li Mei, a researcher at the Music Institute of the Chinese Academy of Art, pointed out that the Han folk music collected by the Chinese Academy of Art covers the music of 3/kloc-0 provinces, cities, districts and more than 40 ethnic minorities in Chinese mainland. Music and audio materials total about 7000 hours. The ongoing "Digital Rescue of Endangered Audio-visual Archives" project will eventually complete the comprehensive arrangement of audio-visual, pictures and ancient books, and realize digital storage and utilization. Yang Qingsheng, the chief video designer of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games, and Xu Gang, the project expert of the Olympic Organizing Committee, introduced the vivid experience of using digital technology to express chinese heritage in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, which opened a unique idea of developing and utilizing cultural heritage with digital technology.
Digital technology: a double-edged sword in the field of contemporary humanities and arts
Digital technology brings not only good news to mankind. While seeing the positive role of digital technology, experts also pointed out that it is a double-edged sword. Chinese art
Jia, assistant to the president of the institute and director of the Cultural Development Strategy Research Center, pointed out that while digital technology has brought infinite visual wonders to the movie screen, it has also fundamentally changed the nature of the traditional film "reflecting the truth with reality" and replaced it with "bringing reality with reality". With the help of digital technology, the film has completed the leap from "reappearing reality" to "virtual reality", and the film art has entered the era of virtual aesthetics from the traditional documentary aesthetics. Lv Pintian, editor-in-chief of Art Watch, pointed out that we must correctly understand the double-edged sword nature of technology. Digital technology has both positive and negative effects on cultural heritage and cultural diversity. It can bring vivid, rich and vivid cultural diversity to the world, and it will also squeeze those weak cultures that do not have strong communication power from "cultural polarization", thus affecting the living conditions of weak cultures in a wider range. Therefore, how to better control and develop digital technology, improve the protection of cultural heritage, eliminate the digital divide and promote the diversity of human culture, it is necessary to strengthen exchanges among countries in the world and jointly explore strategies and tactics for promoting cultural development by using digital technology.
The "China-US Cultural Forum" originated in June 2007, when the Ministry of Culture invited a delegation from the President's Arts and Humanities Committee to visit China successfully. The delegation is composed of the heads of five major American cultural institutions and American public and private cultural institutions, and reached a number of consensuses with China on expanding and deepening cultural exchanges between the two countries. That visit opened a new pattern of official cultural exchanges between China and the United States. After that, the preparations for the "China-US Cultural Forum" began. In June165438+1October of the same year, the Ministry of Culture of China organized a delegation of Sino-US cooperation projects to visit the United States, and reached a consensus with American cultural institutions to implement the suggestions made by the delegation during their visit to China, which laid a solid foundation for the convening of the Sino-US cultural forum. In April, 2008, the China delegation participated in the seminar "National Cognition: Historical Memory and Culture" held in Italy, which made full preparations for the Sino-US Cultural Forum.