The 2022 OWHC-AP Online Youth Forum Presented a Promising Future for Tomorrow’s World Heritage!
Date : 2022-07-22
File :
The Organization of World Heritage Cities Asia-Pacific
Regional Secretariat (OWHC-AP), located in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, has
successfully completed the final round of the 2022 OWHC-AP Online Youth Forum,
a thesis contest designed to inspire future World Heritage experts from current
undergraduate/graduate university students.
Under the theme of World
Heritage Cities: where we want to live, where we want to visit, the 2022
OWHC-AP Online Youth Forum focused on, in alignment with the upcoming OWHC
World Congress scheduled to take place in Quebec City, Canada, this September, “Enhancing
livability in World Heritage Cities” for the residents in the World Heritage
Cities who are currently facing various problems, such as the pandemic, climate
change, depopulation, imminent recession – all of which negatively impact the
quality of life in World Heritage Cities.
The OWHC-AP Online Youth Forum commenced in March this
year as a project in the form of an academic forum and contest that consisted
of proposal for research theses, evaluation of them, and experts’
consultations, before culminating in the presentation (conducted in English) in
the final round of the contest on 21 July 2022. The step-by-step structure of
the Forum was detailed to help the youth participants to further clarify,
specify, and strengthen their ideas for each phase.
Hosted by Ji-eun Lee, the Cultural Heritage Culture, the final
round of the Youth Form opened with congratulatory messages from Mayor Nakyoung
Joo, the Mayor of Gyeongju, and Mikhail De Thyse, the Secretary General of the
OWHC. 6 (six) theses that made through the rigorous process of evaluation and consultation
were presented, each being judged by Jae-hun Choi, Professor of Konkuk
University and World Heritage Expert; Fergus Maclaren, President of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee;
Leonid Kondrashev, the President of the National Committee of ICOMOS Russia.
The Grand Prix of the 2022 OWHC-AP went
to the team of Zhekai Zhu, Yan Tong (the London School of Economics), and Ziwei
Kang (Hangzhou Normal University) whose thesis was titled Examining the emotional perspective of youth volunteers’ heritage
participation: a Case Study of West Lake Ambassador, West lake Cultural
landscape of Hangzhou China). Minjoo Chong (Yonsei University) and Ju Yeong
Son(Kongju University) was the runner-up with their presentation on Development of a Field Trip Program to World
Heritage Through Roblox.
One member of the Grand-Prix winning
team will be selected to participate in the upcoming OWHC World Congress as a
prize. In addition, the final 6 (six) teams will be presented with awards,
prizes, and souvenirs.