An international conference on heritage conservation and the prehistoric archaeology of South China, jointly organized by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, HKSAR and the Anthropology Department of CUHK, and partially funded by New Asia College, was held from 13–15 December 2007 at the Heritage Discovery Centre at Kowloon Park.
World renowned archaeologists, Prof. Peter Bellwood of Australian National University, Profs. Yan Wenming and Li Boqian of Peking University, and two senior administrative officers from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage were invited as the keynote speakers.
Delegates came from Harvard, Peking, and Zhongshan universities, from the Institute of Archaeology, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ICMOS China, and the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, as well as eight provincial institutes of archaeology in the Yangzi River Valley and South China, and the Bishop Museum in Hawaii.
At the meeting, new archaeological discoveries in South China and adjacent areas were presented, and important issues such as the origin of agriculture and civilization in South China, the origin of Hong Kong’s prehistoric culture, and the cultural dynamics and human diaspora between South China, South-east Asia and the Pacific, as well as heritage conservation in mainland China and Hong Kong were discussed.
The conference provided an academic forum for scholarly communication and data sharing, and made novel contribution to the prehistoric archaeology of not only Hong Kong but also East Asia and the Pacific.
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