Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs visited Jinsha Site Museum: He Cherished the Museum and Paid His Respect to Chinese Culture

Release Time: 2017-10-24

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr is visiting Jinsha Site Museum

      “Every time I visited China, I visited the local museums. It’s my thing.” “I have visited many Chinese museums, such as Taiyuan Museum, Shanghai Museum, and National Museum of China. It’s hard to find enough English books that introduce Chinese ancient civilization and I can’t read Chinese, so visiting the museums becomes my way to pay my respect to Chinese culture.” At 14:00 on Jul. 30, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr went to Jinsha Site Museum. Accompanied by the guide, he visited the museum while sharing his understanding of Chinese culture.

    It was the first time for him as a Minister for Foreign Affairs to visit central China. This visit aimed at further developing the economic and trade between China and Australia. In the morning of Jul. 30, he met the representatives of Chinese and Australia corporations at the breakfast meeting; at noon, he had lunch with government officials of Chengdu; at night, he unveiled the Australian Consulate General. Having a full schedule, Carr squeezed one hour to visit Jinsha Site Museum.

   In the exhibition hall, Carr listened to the guide gladly and asked enthusiastically, “Does it have a history of more than 3,000 years?” When heard the confirmative answer, he exclaimed, “How marvelous!” In order to save more time to visit, he invited the reporter of People’s network, “Have you been here before? Come and join us, it would be fun! We could chat in the tourist coach.”

    After visited the sacrificial area of Jinsha Site, Carr told the reporter that he came to the museums when he visited China because he was very interested in Chinese history. “I want to visit Chinese historical sites. It’s very exciting to see the cultural site of Shang and Zhou Dynasty.” He said, “In Australia, it’s hard to see this kind of exhibition. We have a few very nice Chinese artistic show, but it is different between seeing them in Australia and visiting them in person in China. Every provincial of China has a lot of treasures; we need to see them here.” 

    As the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carr indicated that China is rising up to be a power. If a country wants to make contact with China, it has to understand Chinese history. “Compared with other countries, it is important for China because I find that Chinese leaders pay much attention to history.” He emphasized, “We must pay homage to Chinese ancient culture because it regains China the dominant status in world economy. Back in the early 19th century, China is the biggest economy in the world.”   Recently, Carr was reading books about the history of Qing Dynasty. He was particularly interested in the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong Emperor period. He said, “People always misunderstood the history of this period.” 

    In recent years, Australia actively seeks the opportunity to rise in the Asia, asserting to win in the Asia. It becomes more close to Asian countries especially China. And the economic and trade relation among them is also closely interconnected. Under these circumstances, both Kevin Rudd, the former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Carr showed strong interest in Chinese culture and history. Just like Carr said, only mutual understanding can help to build mutual trust. He hoped that what they had in common could deepen the Australia-China strategic partnership so that the two countries could cooperate in politics, economy and trade, culture and other fields.

Video：http://tv.people.com.cn/n/2013/0801/c222296-22411948.html