The year of 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of China’s accession to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). On December 3, Song Xinchao, President of ICOMOS China and former head of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, delivered a lecture titled “60 Years of ICOMOS & Heritage Conservation in China” at Yenching Academy. This was the eighth lecture in the China Studies Lecture Series for the 2025‒2026 academic year and was co-hosted by YCA Associate Dean Fan Shiming and Zhang Jianwei, Associate Professor with Tenure at the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University.
Review of the Lecture
Mr Song Xinchao traced ICOMOS’s evolution and practices and its far-reaching influence on China’s cultural heritage conservation over the past 60 years. He noted that ICOMOS was the product of a deep post-World War II reflection on the destruction of civilisation. In the aftermath of the World War II, the international community gradually forged a consensus that cultural heritage preservation is a shared responsibility of all humanity. The Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments (1931) established systematic conservation principles for cultural heritage. The International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (The Venice Charter of 1964) laid the cornerstone of ethics for modern conservation—authenticity, minimal intervention, reversibility, and thorough documentation. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw, with the 1964 Venice Charter as its guiding document. The founding of ICOMOS marked a shift in heritage preservation from national-level practice to an institutionalised international collaboration among professionals and experts.
As one of the three Advisory Bodies named to the World Heritage Convention in 1972, ICOMOS provides the World Heritage Committee with evaluations, monitoring, and administrative guidance for world cultural heritage properties. ICOMOS consists of 118 National Committees and 31 International Scientific Committees, forming a worldwide network dedicated to historic cities, towns, and villages, vernacular architecture, archaeological heritage management, cultural landscapes, and heritage documentation. Song Xinchao emphasised that ICOMOS serves not only as a technical advisor on heritage preservation, but also as an advocate and facilitator. It has pushed the boundaries of heritage preservation through its published charters and guidelines, driving a paradigm shift from the preservation of material structures to a human-centered, sustainable framework for the contextualised preservation of diverse cultural heritage places.
Song Xinchao noted that ICOMOS General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, commonly known as the ICOMOS Triennial General Assembly or ICOMOS World Congress, has continually updated itself in response with the evolution of cultural heritage preservation, as reflected in ICOMOS Triennial Scientific Plans (TSPs). From 1965 to 1978, ICOMOS focused on specialised restoration techniques. The organisation shifted its focus to “development” from 1978 to 1990, revealing the correlation between heritage conservation and social development. In the following period, the core paradigm shifted to globalisation, community participation and a people-centred approach. From 2017 onwards, ICOMOC continues to deal with conservation within broader contexts such as climate crisis, global conflicts, and disaster preparedness. ICOMOS has adapted itself to “change”, which is a new normal. Song Xinchao pointed out that ICOMOS has moved from a material-centric, specialisation-driven approach to a human-centred, value-based paradigm, reflecting the profound transformation of the international community over the past 60 years and epitomising the significance of cultural heritage conservation as a common cause of all humanity.
Song Xinchao observed that ICOMOS’s efforts towards sustainable development have been closely aligned with the SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. To adapt both itself and cultural heritage conservation to ongoing transformation, ICOMOS has established the Sustainable Development Goals Working Group (SDGWG). ICOMOS SDGWG published the Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals: Policy Guidance for Heritage and Development Actors. The guidance expounds on the interconnections between cultural heritage conservation and all the 17 SDGs, incorporating heritage preservation into a wider range of sustainable development scenarios.
Song Xinchao looked back at China’s engagement with ICOMOS over the past 32 years since the country joined the international organisation in 1993. China has not only actively pursued World Heritage inscriptions, but also been deeply involved in localising international standards. Under the legal framework of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, ICOMOS China promulgated in 2000 the Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China (the China Principles), incorporating Chinese heritage conservation practice with the latest global theories of cultural heritage conservation. China has explored cultural heritage conservation in the Chinese context, expanding the scope of cultural heritage conservation to include new categories such as cultural landscapes, industrial heritage and heritage routes. A heritage monitoring and reactive monitoring system has been established on both the national and local levels in the country. China has also carried out extensive international collaboration and secured a leading position globally for conserving cave temples, murals, earthen heritage sites and excavated artifacts.
Q&A Session
Q: What does ICOMOS do for heritage evaluation?
A: Cultural heritage is in essence, a witness to the history and evolution of mankind. In accordance with related conventions, there are six core criteria for World Cultural Heritage evaluation, concerning human creative genius, interchange of human values, cultural traditions or civilisations, human-environment relationship, and relevance to historic events. The core lies in the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). Outstanding Universal Value refers to cultural and/or natural significance that is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity.
Q: Do ICOMOS National Committees apply heritage preservation methodologies of their own?
A: There are always differences but we can forge a consensus through dialog. For instance, European countries engaged in heated debates over pursuing World Cultural Heritage inscription for the first World War cemeteries. It took over 20 years for the nomination of the Silk Roads, which became a transnational serial nomination by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan inscribed on the World Heritage List as the “Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor”. This crystalises ICOMOS’s research-led, consensus-based working principle.
Q: What is the role of new technologies like AI in heritage preservation?
A: AI is foremost a powerful tool for disease diagnosis, virtual reconstruction and visitor management. More profoundly, AI itself will become an integral part of human heritage. The thinking and technological trajectories of our times are recorded by AI, which will help future generations to understand the 21st-century civilisation. We must be cautious of the misuse of technology, while fully tapping into technological potentials for heritage conservation.
Q: How can the youth and the wider public engage in cultural heritage conservation?
A: Heritage conservation requires whole-society participation. ICOMOS attaches great importance to youth engagement and facilitates young talents to join cultural heritage conservation, by establishing young scholars’ projects and sub-plan projects as well as offering internship opportunities. The public may not be directly involved in archaeological or restoration work, but their constant concern for heritage is an integral part of both transmission of human memory and personal cultivation. At the same time, public attention serves as a catalyst, driving decision-makers and stakeholders to prioritise heritage conservation on their agendas.
