Shanghai, 21 May 10

UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova launches report on cultural diversity

Speaking at the 35th cultural forum “Culture Flow in the Age of Urbanism”, held jointly with the Jiefang Daily Group, Bokova said that the Expo will encourage participation of people from all walks of life. One of the tasks of UNESCO is to promote cultural diversity through dialogue and seek the legal protection of cultural diversity.

Bokova went on to say that the protection of cultural heritage and tourism development has two faces. “If a place’s application for cultural heritage passes the assessment of UNESCO it is of course an honor to the local community and developing the land's tourism industry can promote the country's economic development and contribute to GDP growth. Meanwhile, it also poses a challenge to the cultural heritage protection. In the Asia Pacific region, UNESCO and Tongji University have jointly established the Asia-Pacific World Heritage Training and Research Center, giving training to the government officials to better protect cultural heritage.”

Well-known Chinese scholar of cultural studies, Yu Qiuyu, interpreted the UNESCO report. Qiuyu said the report explains that, “With the globalization process, there is also the tendency of cultural homogeneity. We must adhere to cultural diversity; culture integration will be a human tragedy.” Some scholars even believe that Cultural diversity will inevitably bring about a clash of civilizations, conflict and cause cultural invasion.

Qiuyu said he felt strongly that the Shanghai World Expo showed how different cultures presented as different pavilions all co-exist in one land and people with different cultural backgrounds join the same queues. This illustrates that different cultures can live in harmony; “The Expo is a miniature model of the future of human culture”, he said.