This photo shows the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which is located along the waterfront of the West Kowloon Cultural District, on June 7, 2022. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)

Hong Kong can provide an important window onto the motherland’s colorful history and culture to people from other parts of the world, and the Hong Kong Palace Museum can act as a bridge to pass on the treasurable spirit of the nation from generation to generation, experts in history and cultural studies said at a forum on Monday.

In a keynote speech, Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, expressed his view that the Palace Museum not only showcases the 600- year-long history of the buildings it occupies, but is also a place where artifacts spanning the nation’s over-5,000-year-old culture are accumulated.

“The culture it inherits and carries from generation to generation tells the spirit of the nation. That is also what the Palace Museum conveys to the world,” Wang said.

A woman takes photos of an exhibit during the media preview of the Hong Kong Palace Museum in Hong Kong, June 17, 2022. (CALVIN NG/CHINA DAILY)

We should welcome and embrace various cultures of different countries with an open mind, while displaying our culture to the world ... Hong Kong is an important tie and a close partner that helps us to realize that.

Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing

Wang made his speech at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, located on the western harborfront of the West Kowloon Cultural District. The museum’s opening to the public, on July 2, will play an important part in the celebrations marking the special administrative region’s 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland.

In its opening exhibitions, the museum will showcase over 900 antiques and art pieces from the Beijing-based Palace Museum. It will also organize and launch multiple educational and cultural communication activities for local teenagers aimed at enriching their knowledge of traditional Chinese culture afterwards, thereby cultivating them as “inheritors” of the culture, Wang noted.

Once open, the museum can provide an open window onto ancient Chinese culture and history, which people from other parts of the world will be able to appreciate, said Wang.

ALSO READ: A glimpse of the palace treasures

This undated file photo shows Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

“We should welcome and embrace various cultures of different countries with an open mind, while displaying our culture to the world,” Wang added.

“Hong Kong is an important tie and a close partner that helps us to realize that,” he stressed. The city could serve as a platform where different civilizations from around the world conduct dialogue with each other, he explained. Cultural exchanges could also play a role in helping the city further realize its goal of becoming an international finance and trade hub, as well as in other areas.

A woman admires a headrest in the shape of a reclining boy from the Ding kilns of Hebei province during the media preview of the Hong Kong Palace Museum in Hong Kong, June 17, 2022. (CALVIN NG/CHINA DAILY)

Though we are now in a technology era, the Palace Museum inspires us to absorb the wisdom of predecessors and innovate something new based on that.

Cheng Pei-kai, former director of the Chinese Civilisation Centre at City University of Hong Kong

“Though we are now in a technology era, the Palace Museum inspires us to absorb the wisdom of predecessors and innovate something new based on that,” said Cheng Pei-kai, former director of the Chinese Civilisation Centre at City University of Hong Kong.

“Apart from supporting the museum’s development, we should also absorb and spread the spirit,” he said. “It is helpful for the cultivation of new generations.”

Meanwhile, Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties, said that the upcoming opening of Hong Kong Palace Museum has special meaning and will enhance local people’s cultural identity with the nation.

“The Palace Museum respectively based in Beijing and Hong Kong will shine together, and generate a new meaning of carrying forward traditional culture for all of us,” said Bernard Chan, chairman of HKPM board.

READ MORE: Hong Kong Palace Museum special stamps up for grabs

“As the nation’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) first outlined Hong Kong’s status as an international center of cultural exchanges, I believe Hong Kong Palace Museum will promote the communication and create more cultural dialogues in the world.”