Cultural highways
With Lady Linda Wong Davies, on carrying heritage to the world without losing its soul.
Lady Linda Wong Davies founded the KT Wong Foundation, named in memory of her father, to build what she calls cultural highways. Her philanthropy takes the long view. For the Serumpun Leadership Series we talked about how heritage can travel without losing what makes it valuable.
The foundation set out to carry Chinese cultural heritage to the international stage, giving money, expertise and experience to young Chinese so they could take part in the wider world. Sixteen or seventeen years ago, Lady Linda said, China was far less open than it is now, and at first people were suspicious: why would a non-profit do this? It has been a long and varied journey with that government, that country and its people.
Her motivation is to find the cultural treasures within a country and to understand what they might say to the world. There is no point bringing something of deep heritage value abroad if you do not explain it. If you do not curate it in a language the rest of the world understands, the best you will hear is: very interesting, next please.
Attention spans today are short, she said, so every step of a cultural highway has to be thought through. If you are taking yourself to the world stage, you have to understand what that stage wants, and then ask how to present your heritage in a way people can understand without destroying or diluting its intrinsic value.
That is the question Serumpun Sarawak asks every time it takes Sarawak’s food abroad.
Watch the conversation on the Serumpun Sarawak Instagram channel
How do I create and curate this in a way that people can understand?
Lady Linda Wong Davies, Serumpun Leadership Series
Heritage that is not explained is admired for a moment and then forgotten.