Cultural products boost understanding

Young-Seo Baik, emeritus professor at Yonsei University, South Korea, and an expert in East Asia and China's modern and contemporary history, highlights the enduring relevance of East Asian classical thought in addressing global challenges at the forum.

He suggests that the world should seek new paths for modern civilizational transformation from classical Chinese thought.

"To achieve the coexistence of tradition and modernity, we need to introduce the perspective of civilizational exchange," he says.

Baik points out that the Harvard professor Michael Puett's popular work The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life highlights how ancient Chinese philosophers like Confucius and Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) have offered practical guidance for living a good life, which focuses on honing one's instincts, training emotions, and continuously improving personal cultivation to respond morally and appropriately to various situations.

"Such responses can also have a positive impact on those around us," Baik says.

He adds that Puett's approach resonates with Western audiences by connecting ancient wisdom to modern daily life.

He proposes integrating Chinese philosophy into daily life to break rigid self-perceptions and reshape interactions between individuals and the world, and combine Neo-Confucianism with institutional innovation to explore how traditional culture can better drive reform and development.

Yang Huilin, former vice president of Renmin University of China, says that every tradition contains both "enduring ideas "and "mutable, shared elements".

"I believe there is a profound potential for dialogue between Chinese thought and Western scholars, offering a wealth of intellectual resources," Yang says.

He emphasizes that "mutual reference" and "mutual interpretation" allow civilizations to move toward and complement each other despite their differences. This approach points to a future where civilizational exchange transcends barriers, mutual learning overcomes conflicts, and inclusiveness surpasses superiority.

In dialogical research that emphasizes dialogue and interactions between different perspectives, disciplines, or cultures, Yang says that tracing and reconstructing the theoretical tools and problem sources of both Chinese and Western traditions is a fundamental task for resolving the debates between ancient and modern, East and West.

At the forum, the Cross-Strait High-Level Academic Consortium on Chinese Civilization was officially inaugurated, led by Renmin University of China and co-founded with more than 20 universities. It aims to advance Chinese cultural heritage, support the Belt and Road Initiative, and promote cross-Strait integration.

Additionally, a graduate school for fine traditional Chinese culture research and training was established to promote talent cultivation, academic research and exchanges in the fields of Chinese civilization.

Sharing his experiences with Chinese and Western students, Chard says that many Chinese students possess a far deeper understanding of Western civilization than Western students do of Chinese civilization.

To further popularize Chinese knowledge in Western societies, Chard encourages Chinese humanities scholars to take on greater responsibility.

This includes using nontraditional channels such as popular books, films and games to translate China's millennia-old wisdom and modernization stories for a global audience, while strengthening academic exchanges between China and the West.

He calls upon all Sinologists to train the next generation to bridge cultural divides.

"I hope the West can recognize that China is a very cool, fascinating, and highly worthwhile civilization to learn about," he says.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn