Mok Lan Lan [Xinhua]

"We have been carrying out cultural promotion and inheritance in order to gather the whole historical cultural resources together and connecting the past, present and future by cultural inheritance, making more people know the culture of Macao and inviting more young people's involvement in cultural inheritance and innovation," said Mok Lan Lan, President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Mok has long been promoting cultural exchange between Macao and the Chinese mainland, and exploring Macao's historical and cultural resources.

In July 2005, the Historic Center of Macao was included on the World Heritage List, becoming the 31st world heritage of China. The whole historic center includes eight squares and 22 buildings.

"These squares and buildings include western churches and Chinese temples, which are the most direct embodiment of Macao's multi-culture history. As a fusion of European and Asian civilizations, Macao has long experienced diverse cultures so that it owns unique historical and cultural advantages," Mok said, adding that the primary task of Macao cultural workers is protecting and developing cultural heritages and passing them on to next generations.

To ensure the inheritance and development of its cultural heritages, Macao issued its law on cultural heritage protection in 2014, giving management of the Historic Center of Macao a legal basis.

"A cultural heritage is a social treasure that can't be duplicated. We need to cherish them as they are a part of our body. We hold a cultural heritage carnival every year to teach children about Macao's cultural heritage resources," she said.

"The purpose of the cultural relics rejuvenation project is to transform historical buildings into public space that can be shared with the people, so that they can be integrated into daily life, rather than isolated cultural relics," Mok added.

In order to build a 'cultural bay area,' Macao can cooperate with other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to spread the culture of the region to the Portuguese-speaking countries and even throughout Europe. As a Sino-Portuguese cultural exchange center, Macao can play an important role in cultural exchanges.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao set up four subsidized programs to support the creation of films, songs, fashion design and animation in a bid to support more creators and develop the cultural consumption market.

As a famous writer in Macao, Mok is deeply impressed by the profound influence of Macao's return to the motherland. "Macao's return spurs more writers to have opportunities to tap into local topics, historical narration and magnificent themes," said Mok, pointing out that since Macao returned to the motherland, it has enjoyed unprecedented development which brings more opportunities to Macao writers to communicate with the rest of the world.

"Thanks to Macao's return to the motherland, I have got more opportunities in literary creation and work experience in the past 20 years, from which I have gained more happiness," she added.

(Source: Xinhua/Translated and edited by Women of China)