History
How the Federation was formed and our footprints
On 11 August 1981, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion was officially formed under the leadership of Dr. Lucrecia, R, Kasilag, the then Chairman of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, and Mr. Hsu Po Yun, the President of New Aspect Promotion Corporation. Its founding representatives also included Mr. Tadashi Yokoyama of the Nippon Cultural Center, Mr. Seong-tae Kim of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and also a representative from UNESCO, Mr. Apratty. During the meeting, they came up with six prominent decisions:
- Came to an agreement that the organization should be named Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion (FACP). FACP shall be a non-political and non-profitable international cultural organization.
- The Constitution was drafted and the final version was set after an editing and drafting process that took three years to complete.
- Due to special and complicated situations for the political and economical aspects for different regions and nations in Asia, it was a resolution that the Federation should be culturally based, and each region should be represented by its capital city; in order to avoid controversies due political associations.
- Assertively encourage important guests of honor and observers from other parts of the world than Asia
- Fortify the interaction between regions in Asia.
- They agreed that the second annual conference would be held in Taipei, the 3rd in Tokyo, and the 4th in Seoul.
In the following years, its members increased exponentially with members from Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, and Jakarta. In 1983, Beijing also appointed two observing guests to take part in the 3rd Annual Conference in Tokyo. Melbourne applied to become a member in 1985 and after 5 years ofvigorous discussion, the region’s membership was finally approved. In 1990 at the 9th Annual Conference, a Melbourne representative was welcomed into the organization to become a member of FACP.
Past 43 Years of Conferences
In the 90’s, a mid-term governor meeting was held annually, taking place in different cities each time, and the hosting cities included Bali Island, Lisbon of Portugal, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Gyeongju.
In 2001, the region of China with Beijing being the regional representative officially became a FACP member. Following this, FACP began to include many subjects for discussion on Chinese cultural events, resources, information, and developments. Additionally, FACP also expanded its connection to the further western regions, and an example of this could be seen from the annual conference in Urumchi 2006, which is located at the western part of China and is famous for the Silk Road. The representatives of FACP hoped that through this congregation at this location a modern cultural Silk Road could be embarked.
Over the past 30 years of FACP’s history, the federation has strived to be one of the most important international performing arts and cultural promoting conference and one of the vital cultural orgarnizations globally with emphasis on connecting the east and west. We hope that each participating members and observers can benefit from FACP with increase in their cultural productions annually and enrich the art life in Asia.
Ir. H. Joko WIDODO, the President-elect of Indonesia and the then Mayor of Solo city of Indonesia, where FACP 2012 Annual Conference was held, stood out to host the FACP conference and made it successfully. In October 2014, he will be shown-in as President of Indonesia. He is well-known as using power of culture for governance.
At the 2013 Annual Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Mr. Masami SHIGETA was elected as the new Chairman of FACP for the next three years. He intended to set a new direction for FACP in order to raise its profile internationally and to introduce new programmer and activities.
