10 years after UNESCO listing | Ung Vai Meng praises heritage conservation efforts

Michael Turner was one of the experts who attended the seminar
was one of the experts who attended the seminar

Ung Vai Meng expressed his satisfaction with the authorities’ efforts to preserve the legacy of local culture over the years. The Cultural Affairs Bureau’s president spoke yesterday at the opening ceremony for the celebrations of the listing of Macau’s historical center as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Multiple prominent scholars have shared their insights into heritage preservation during an academic seminar since the event kicked-off.
“Actually we’re happy indeed as it’s an enormous honor to the people here, for Macau is a culturally historic center. After ten years of efforts, our world heritage sites are not only valued by ourselves but also other regions,” the bureau head told media on the sidelines of the seminar.
“The concept of heritage preservation in that time was about protecting buildings. After years of efforts, the SAR government has gradually shifted the initial concept of preserving temples, churches and mansions to a cultural legacy inclusive of tangible and intangible properties,” said Ng adding that such cultural resources would be advantageous in the region’s self-development, given that much of Macau has remained intact from previous decades, as the city has never suffered massive warfare or political movements.
He also revealed that the heritage preservation law has empowered the government to combat illegal construction within historical districts and furthermore extolled the efforts as “fruitful.” The bureau will soon launch a second round of public consultation on its heritage conservation and management framework.
“This one is much different from its past versions, which was an introduction to our management of the historic center. Based on some foundations, we have rolled out more detailed and concrete terms to fulfill the requirements of the world heritage committee,” he said.
As the society often criticizes the bureau’s non-legal binding opinions as “futile” when controversial urban planning might compromise local heritage sites, Ung believes otherwise.
“Although the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s opinions aren’t legally restrictive, they are received as such by the urban planning committee or other public work departments. They become like certain regulations when it comes to implementation,” said Ung, citing the authorities’ pledge to construct two “landscape corridors” for the Penha Hill, that will not be obstructed in case high rises are allowed in the Reclamation Zone B.
Nonetheless, Prof. Michael Turner, UNESCO Chair in Urban Design and Conservation Studies, frowned upon the proposal, which he criticized for failing to take into account the whole picture of historic centers.
“I am not happy about simply leaving corridors. I am not happy about it. You have to really convince me to make it work. I think that we should look at other alternatives, but the alternatives should not be simply visual. Because the corridor idea focuses on monuments, it doesn’t focus on the historic center,” said Turner who stressed in his speech that sustainability is the key strategy in constructing a city’s urban landscape, which includes the city at large instead of particular districts such as the buffer zones. The ICOMOS member also likened the heritage in visual form to an “iceberg” as much cultural significance actually lay beneath the surface. “The Titanic didn’t sink because of what it saw, it sunk because what’s below the water,” he said.
The scholar believes that heritage could mean every single corner of the city, to which most local citizens have also developed a stronger sense of attachment over the heritage sites usually known to tourists.
Prof. Turner said: “That’s my idea: social inclusion. That’s why the heritage is not stopped by the boundaries of the edge but includes all Macau. I’d take some of those ordinary buildings, the eight-story or ten-story building with bars and flower parks, this is part of the heritage. If I extend my mind to include this, then this is what social inclusion is about. That’s why I said all of Macau is heritage. Forget world heritage.”
Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum at Beijing’s Forbidden City, was also present at the seminar, introducing to the audience the central government’s traffic control policy to cap the number of visitors to the extremely popular museum. Staff reporter