File Photo (Xinhua)
NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Tencent's latest initiative to promote traditional Chinese culture among its product users won wide acclaim among U.S. culture and art professionals at a New York forum Sunday.
Sharing a number of innovative moves that successfully incorporated Chinese traditional elements into its products, Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent said: "We believe that innovation is the best way to preserve our traditional culture," Cheng said during the China-U.S. Cultural Investment Forum.
Tencent has introduced product skins featuring Chinese cultural heritages such as Kunqu opera and Dunhuang Feitian for its users when playing the world popular mobile game, Honor of Kings, said Cheng.
"The extension of the content based in tradition is very laudatory and extraordinary," said Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of Brooklyn Academy of Music at the forum. "Hopefully those young people will move on to actually see ... live performance of what they are experiencing as digital viewers."
In September, QQ Music, Tencent's music streaming tool, and Dunhuang Academy, organized in collaboration an outdoor concert by the caves to "revive" the music side of the oasis city of Dunhuang.
Jay A. Levenson, director of International Program at the Museum of Modern Art, was amazed at the technology's ability to "bring in audience that ordinarily might not be interested in this type of culture."
Meanwhile, Tencent has also co-organized with the Palace Museum and launched programs to get more people involved, including an annual competition of digital product design with elements from the Forbidden City as well as a Mini Program to facilitate visitors to tour around it.
"The popularity of the digital forms of traditional culture among young people will not only help with the success of digital platforms, but also sustain and enrich traditional culture itself," Cheng noted.
David E. Van Zandt, president of The New School, told Xinhua that there is a great need for tech companies to help bring culture to more people because historically cultural items have always been limited to a small number of people in any society.
"Tencent's ... commitment to trying to use their technology to enhance cultural understanding within China -- and I hope also outside of China -- at some point strikes me as an amazing project," he added.
