LettersWhy Hong Kong should treasure its local heritage: a French point of view

Name: Hong Kong from the air in 1970
Uploaded: 2020-09-18T05:50:43.000Z
Duration: 2 min 27 s
Description: Hong Kong from the air in 1970

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The Heritage Days self-guided tour in Happy Valley includes the Tung Lin Kok Yuen temple, an 82-year-old Buddhist temple. Photo: Edmond So

Letters

Published: 1:50pm, 18 Sep 2020Updated: 8:52pm, 18 Sep 2020

For the very first time, France is bringing its Heritage Days to Hong Kong this weekend. While keeping in line with social distancing measures, we are inviting the public to discover a series of heritage sites through a self-guided tour in Happy Valley. This walk showcases a variety of locations with historic significance such as the F11 Foto Museum housed in an art-deco-style building from the 1930s, or the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Buddhist nunnery which offers a mix of traditional Chinese architecture and European influences.

Organised every year on the third weekend of September since 1984 and now widely celebrated in Europe, the Heritage Days are one of the most exciting events of our French cultural calendar: on these two days, prestigious venues (such as France’s presidential palace, National Assembly, ministries, embassies, universities, theatres, factories and private castles or villas) open their doors to the general public. Last year, more than 12 million people visited the 17,600 participating monuments.

Heritage is not mere entertainment, not only looking to the past. Heritage is about your own history: who are you and who you want to be. Knowing the past helps you understand the present and better shape the future. The Heritage Days encourage public participation as an act of democratic citizenship to develop a sense of responsibility for the past and to reinforce a common shared identity. It is all the more necessary as our societies, in the East as in the West, seem to be more divided than ever.

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Hong Kong from the air in 1970

As a foreign diplomat, I consider it my duty to learn about the local heritage. How could I understand Hong Kong without spending hours at the Museum of History? Heritage is also a solid cement of friendship between people: I cried in sorrow the night the Notre-Dame cathedral burnt down, and I was moved to tears when Hongkongers contacted me to offer generous contributions to the renovation of this prominent symbol of Paris. Tomorrow, I will be able to tell my children in front of the rebuilt church: “You see, a couple of these Gothic stones are from Hong Kong!”

That is why we are so happy, hand in hand with the Hong Kong authorities and our local partners, to do our part in promoting the fascinating historical buildings of this unique city.

Alexandre Giorgini, consul general of France in Hong Kong and Macau