Lecture for better understanding of
Macao’s World Cultural Heritage
Macao, a unique city with its numerous historical streets and buildings of great cultural value that bears witness to the meeting of cultural influences from China and the West, successfully got the site of its Historic Centre recognized by UNESCO and inscribed on the World Heritage List on July 15th, 2005, as the 31st World Heritage listed site in China. In order to promote and help popularize the world heritage know-how as well as the educational meaning about protection of historical relics, Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau held a theme talk on topic of “World heritage, our homestead—approaching the Macao Historic Centre” on March 12th. Dr. Lin Faqin, the President of Macao Association for Historical Education and Assoc. Prof. of MPI was invited as the speaker.
Dr. Lin explained the definition of World Heritage and what the historical background that made Macao a World Hritage was. These are the sites of significance under evaluation of UNESCO subject to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The Macao Historic Centre covers eight public squares and twenty-two architectural spots. Dr. Lin gave clear description on the formation of Macao from the aspects of its geographic condition and location, its primitive appearance and changes resulting from reclamation as well as the development course all along. It made no difference between Macao’s World Heritage and the other areas’ from the angle of universal value. By use of many photos Dr. Lin guided students and faculty to Macao’s scenic spots of World Heritage from the perspective of its history and architectural feature which could give all of them a clear idea about.
When talking about the conservation of Cultural Heritage, Dr. Lin stated that being the younger generation of Macao, we ourselves could play a role of eco-heritage pioneer. That means we could actively enter into all related issues on protection of historical relics and sites while getting some idea of the Cultural Heritage and take more notice of the Macao Historic Centre. Finally students went over the points of the talk in an interactive Q&A session which gained enthusiastic responses.
In his speech, Dr. Lin showed appreciation of the College students’ lively opening presentation to stimulate the audience’s interest in World Heritage. Moreover he enjoyed the College history learning column specially set up in the webpage that not only gives a clear idea of the contributions that the College had made to Macao and the country, but also implies the spirit of heritage transmitted from generation to generation. Through the talk, Students and faculty had a good understanding of the definition of Cultural Heritage, the significance of World Heritage, and what we Macao citizens should do to conserve the historic centre.