I did a research in music translation and had interaction with ancient music in my country and think the translation of music into another language is a way to promote it to outside world and also a way to help maintain cultural heritage through translation. By other meaning, it is also a way to help people understand more about other cultures and therefore contribute to the mutual understanding and peace between groups of people and nations. I would want to meet and share with other participants of ASEF about my concern and if we can do something else to collaborate.
Today's globalised world is recognized by cultures, therefore cultural heritage plays the role as a tool for people to reveal who they are, what they belong to when they start a dialogue with outside world. In the ASEM context, where we have a protocol to exchange ideas across continents on a basis of mutual understanding and respect to each other. cultural heritage is one of the most important thing to connect East and West through the understanding of ancient values that formed the modern world, and the practising of that knowledge to build a better world by working together in the ASEM spirit.
In another outlook, cultural heritage is what we can not easily change it to our own will, but only to become part of it in a more modern form. For example, the ancient city of Hội An is related to many things in the past that connects Vietnam with the world, especially Japan and the West, its people now take advantages of those ancient values to get involved in the tourism industry for keeping it alive through time. And if they fail to keep their cultural heritage, they will become forgotten.
Another example is the ancient music in Southern Vietnam, which is called "đờn ca tài tử" by the locals. The locals, who are combination of different groups of people from many places of the world, have created the mixture of ancient music of the region under the mainstream of Vietnamese traditional music. To understand about đờn ca tài tử, is an approach to understand the history of Southern Vietnam, and therefore a way to understand how to dialogue with the people there. It is the same for cultural heritage in ASEM context.
Finally, in any situation, cultural heritage is an important tool to reveal our identities and help people connect better on the basis of a world of diversity and peace.
May 2, 2011
