In order to mark the “2016 Macao International Museum Day Carnival”, Macao’s museums under the Cultural Affairs Bureau organize a series of talks. Dr. Joseph Ting, a senior researcher and guest lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was invited to hold the first talk, entitled “The Silk Road - Now and Then”.

The Silk Road corresponds to the ancient trade route between Europe and Asia, that was central to cultural exchange between East and West. Showing a profound knowledge and humour and using a clear language, Dr. Ting introduced the origin, development and decline of the Silk Road as well as the cultural interaction between East and West and the current standing of each country located along the Silk Road route. He also made a brief introduction to academic studies on the Silk Road made by several scholars such as Paul Pelliot, Aurel Stein and Huang Wenbi, among others, using those studies to analyse the historical, geographical and cultural factors that determined the emergence and development of the Silk Road. The talk was met with an enthusiastic response from the public, who raised questions about China’s influence in Western culture along the Silk Road, to which Joseph Ting responded that due to the fact that Central Asia’s written language and ways of life were distinct, China’s influence in the West was mostly felt at a technology and utensils level and not so much at an ideological and cultural level.

In order to celebrate the “2016 Macao International Museum Day Carnival”, Macao’s museums organize the second talk entitled “From ‘Brothers in Arms’ to ‘We Have Differences’ - A Cultural Perspective on the Chinese Textbooks (Dialogue) edited by Westerners in the 19th century” on 21 May, at 3pm at the Macao Museum Auditorium. Dr. Lee Suk Yee, a researcher from the Macao Public Libraries, is invited to explore and analyse the period before and after the Opium Wars, the journeys of English, American, French, German and Portuguese missionaries to China, the daily lives of diplomats and sinologists, the study of Chinese language and the dealings between ethnic Chinese, Chinese merchants and officials.

The talk will be conducted in Cantonese and no translation will be provided. Admission is free. Seats are limited. Reservations can be made through tel. no. 8394 1217, during office hours or online. For more information, please visit the webpages www.museums.gov.mo or www.icm.gov.mo.