Sinologists call for bridging the cultural divide

Beijing, The Gulf Observer: On July 20, 2022, Beijing Language and Culture University’s inaugural meeting of the World Council of Sinologists & Global Forum on World Civilizations and the Chinese Path was held in Beijing. More than 100 sinologists and dozens of well-known scholars from 61 countries participated in the conference online and in person.

Liu Li, chairman of the World Council of Sinologists and president of Beijing Language and Culture University, said in his speech that sinologists have provided unique perspectives for understanding China. The World Council of Sinologists acts as a bridge which will contribute to the promotion of positive exchanges between Chinese and foreign cultures.

The “World Council of Sinologists” was initiated by Beijing Language and Culture University. It has taken on the responsibilities of gathering knowledge of and condensing the power of sinology; promoting mutual learning between civilizations and connecting people on the Silk Road. Since the establishment of the council was proposed, it has received warm responses from sinologists from many countries. At present, the council has brought together 105 outstanding sinologists and translators from 61 countries, such as Paolo Santangelo, Gui Alitto, William H. Nienhauser, Torbjorn Loden and other internationally renowned scholars; covering ten major linguistic and cultural regions on the Belt and Road, including Arabic, Spanish, Russian, French and Persian.

The meeting was chaired by Xu Baofeng, Convenor of the World Council of Sinologists and Dean of the Belt and Road Research Institute of Beijing Language and Culture University. At the meeting, former Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, Uzbekistani Ambassador to China Farhod Arziev, Cuban Ambassador to China Carlos Miguel Pereira, member of the 17th Central Committee, member of the 12th National People’s Congress, chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee, and former director of the State Press and Publication Administration Liu Binjie, Chairman of the World Council of Sinologists, and President of Beijing Language and Culture University Liu Li, American Sinologist Guy Alitto and young Tunisian sinologist Walid Abdallah all delivered speeches, expressing their best wishes and expectations for the establishment of the “World Council of Sinologists.”

Global Forum on World Civilizations and the Chinese Path

Zhang Xiping, Distinguished Professor of Beijing Language and Culture University and Editor-in-Chief of International Sinology; Huang Zhuoyue, Director of the Center for Chinese Culture Translation and Dissemination Research and Director of the Institute of Sinology of Beijing Language and Culture University; German Sinologist Dennis Schilling; Russian Sinologist Kirill Solonin, and other well-known domestic scholars and sinologists gave keynote speeches for the opening of the “Global Forum on World Civilizations and the Chinese Path.”

Contemporary China is the development of Historical China

Starting from the unity of “historical China” and “contemporary China,” Professor Zhang Xiping pointed out that “contemporary China” is the development of “historical China” itself, and that it is only by truly understanding the logic of China’s historical development that can we correctly understand contemporary China. The unity of “historical China” and “contemporary China” is the starting point of Sinology research. Professor Huang Zhuoyue delivered a speech focusing on the differences and commonalities of civilizations and pointed out that in an era of gradual differentiation of civilizations, rediscovering the common ground in the depths of human nature among those differences is an important way to connect the destiny of human beings. Professor Dennis Schilling reviewed the establishment of Sinology as a discipline and the process of internal professional differentiation and pointed out that Sinology possesses the two major characteristics of comprehensive research perspectives and rich knowledge resources, displaying a broad picture of the history of the world civilization exchanges from the perspective of Sinology.

The establishment of the “World Council of Sinologists” has milestone significance in the five aspects of promoting the development of Sinology in the world, optimizing the utilization of Sinology academic resources, improving the network of Sinologists around the world, enhancing the effect of the construction of the international communication capacity of World Sinology and Chinese Studies, and giving full play to the role of Sinologists in the international discourse system. The establishment of the Council will break bottleneck barriers such as isolation, poor interaction and lack of academic sharing mechanisms between different linguistic and cultural regions of global Sinology.