Singaporean President Halimah Visits the NMC

 

On the morning of May 15, 2019, the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations (CDAC) had a grand opening in Beijing. On the afternoon of the same day, the delegation led by the Singaporean President Halimah came to the NMC for “The Splendor of Asia: An Exhibition of Asian Civilizations”. NMC Director Wang Chunfa accompanied the delegation on the visit. 

Wang Chunfa quoted President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the CDAC Opening Ceremony, “Diversity spurs interaction among civilizations, which in turn promotes mutual learning and their further development.” In light of President Xi’s instruction that “We need to promote exchanges and mutual learning among countries, nations and cultures around the world, and strengthen popular support for jointly building a community with a shared future for both Asia and humanity as a whole”, ?“The Splendor of Asia: An Exhibition of Asian Civilizations” is staged as part of the series of cultural activities during the CDAC to recount the stories on civilizations of different countries and manifest the co-prosperity of different civilizations. He also indicated he was deeply impressed by President Halimah’s speech on “Singapore’s diversity is its strength - one which has made it a more resilient society and moved it closer to its neighbors”. 

During the visit, TING Wei Jin Kennie, Director of Asian Civilizations Museum, introduced the 18 selected cultural relics in the Singaporean exhibition zone for the delegation headed by President Halimah. TING Wei Jin Kennie said the dialogues, exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations make the exhibits from Singapore assume features indicating co-existence of multiple cultures. 

At the exhibition zone of Chinese artifacts, Wang Chunfa made a special introduction to Zheng He Bronze Clock symbolizing good fortune among other cultural relics. President Halimah marveled at the long history of China and superb craftsmanship of Chinese people. She had particular interest in the Tang Tri-colored silk-bearing camel figurine with which she posed for a photo.