A launch ceremony for the “Palace Museum Dreamscapes” Charity Summer Camp was held at the Palace Museum in Beijing on Tuesday (Aug 5), marking the start of a five-day cultural exchange program for primary and secondary school students from underprivileged schools in Hong Kong and the Mainland.
The program is designed to deepen students’ understanding of traditional Chinese culture as epitomised by the Forbidden City, strengthening social ties and promoting appreciation of Chinese culture more broadly.
The five-day camp will see students and teachers visit the Palace Museum to learn about its history and culture, explore the Peking University, attend workshops on Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum and visit the Olympic Games venues such as the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) and the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube). It will enable the students to interact and forge friendships while learning about Mainland history.
As in 2024, this year’s camp is sponsored exclusively by the Institute of Philanthropy (IoP) and jointly organized by the Palace Museum and The Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation. The Hong Kong Palace Museum collaborated as a co-organizer supporting the recruitment of Hong Kong students for the program.
This year marks the Palace Museum's centennial, and more than 130 students and teachers from different areas of the Mainland have been invited to join the program.
Attending the launch ceremony were Wang Xudong, Member, Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the Palace Museum; Lester Huang, IoP Chairman and Trustee of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust; Lou Wei, Executive Deputy Director of the Palace Museum; and Li Xiaocheng, Chairman of The Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation. They were joined by more than 100 primary and secondary school students from Hong Kong, Sichuan, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Fujian, Tibet and Xinjiang.
Huang said the Palace Museum in Beijing was not only a treasure of Chinese civilisation but also a valuable platform for young people to explore Chinese culture. He hoped young people would seize the opportunity to take part in activities and engagements to broaden their horizons and improve their understanding and cultural awareness.
He added that the Palace Museum would continue to promote traditional Chinese culture by nurturing young people’s knowledge of Chinese history and fostering their cultural awareness so as to build national pride and confidence and advance national rejuvenation.
Under a five-year collaboration between IoP and the Palace Museum, the “Palace Museum Dreamscapes” Charity Summer Camp is a charitable project run by the Palace Museum. Since 2011, the project has offered educational experiences such as historical story-telling sessions, traditional craft workshops and exploration of cultural relics to enable young people from different backgrounds to learn about traditional Chinese culture.
