The Opening Ceremony for 2019 Confucius China Studies Program · BNU Philosophy Summer School was successfully Held

The 2019 Confucius China Studies Program · BNU Philosophy Summer School has started with an elegant Guqin performance at 8.30 on Tuesday morning, July 2^nd.

Dr. Tian Shufeng, the Assistant Dean of the school of Philosophy welcomed the guests, professors and students as the moderator of the ceremony. He introduced Prof. Wu Xiangdong, Dean of School of Philosophy, Liu Tao, the Deputy Director of International Exchange & Cooperation Office, as well as Ms. Zhang Ke, Deputy Director of Sinology and China Studies Division and Mr. Wang Duoli, Project Official of Sinology and China Studies Division to all of the participants. Whereafter, as the representatives of the organizer and the main sponsor of the summer school, they delivered address tracking back to the original expectations and reminding achievements of the fruitful five-year cooperation between the school of philosophy and Confucius Institute Headquarters. They also gave the best wishes to the program of the summer school in the future.

Prof. Wu Xiangdong, Dean of School of Philosophy, firstly delivered his speech. He expressed his sincere welcome to all students, and highly praised that young foreign students gathered from other countries to study, understand and explore Chinese thoughts in Beijing. China has formed a long-standing ideology and culture with a long history. These thoughts not only form a unique Chinese style and Chinese character, but also play a new role in today's China. Through Confucius China Studies Program, Chinese thoughts and culture are spreading from region to the whole world. The summer school provides an opportunity to form a good international interaction of Chinese thoughts in the younger generation and inject the essence of Chinese traditional thoughts into the development of modern civilization. Prof. Wu introduced the basic situation of the summer school and the academic research and development of it, which provided the students with abundant learning resources.

Ms. Zhang Ke, Deputy Director of Sinology and China Studies Division at Confucius Institute Headquarters, said that intercultural exchanges and collisions are the general trend of historical development. The complexity of international issues calls for cooperation and exchanges with more people. Young people from different countries can gather in BNU Summer School, showing a strong sense of responsibility. She hoped that through this program, students could make some achievements and contributions to the internationalization of Chinese thoughts and the cooperation of diverse culture.

Mr. Liu Tao, the Deputy Director of International Exchange & Cooperation Office of Beijing Normal University, said that China attaches great importance to foreign cooperation. The International Exchange & Cooperation Office of BNU would spare no effort to provide all kinds of guarantees for the students.

As a representative of summer school lecturers, Prof. Kubin, external expert of Beijing Foreign Studies University, started his speech with the basic philosophical issues and the students’ great enthusiasm in Chinese thoughts and philosophy, laying a good foundation for the academic discussion of this summer school.

Marco Pouget from Germany delivered a speech as the student representative. His speech began with the introduction of "学不可以已(Xue bu ke yi yi)", and cited Confucius, XunZi, MoZi and other ancient Chinese thinkers, presenting great interest and deep understanding of Chinese traditional culture. He also expressed the expectation of strengthening cultural communication between China and the West, as well as the great desire to make efforts for it

With the key support of Confucius China Studies Program, BNU Philosophy Summer School has devoted itself to providing overseas young scholars with high-quality research resources in China since its establishment in 2015. It invites top humanities scholars in China and abroad to conduct lecture seminars for the selected students. The program will help them to learn more about the theoretical observation, research, and practice of the "Chinese Experience". Since the founding of the four session, a total of nearly 1000 experts and scholars have been subsidized in other countries. The summer this year will be held on 2-15 July. A total of 42 students will be recruited from 25 countries and regions, including USA, UK and some countries along the Belt and Road. It will present the profound thoughts and wisdom of Chinese philosophy in the form of academic lectures, group salons, field visits and cultural monument

Chinese philosophical thoughts, as a highly concise form of Chinese excellent traditional culture, has always been rooted and grown in the land of Chinese culture, affecting the Chinese people's ideas, habits and lifestyles. In Chinese philosophy, the thought of "民胞物与(Min bao wu yu)" depicts the highest realm of the unity of heaven and man, and the thought of "上善若水(Shang shan ruo shui)" conveys the wisdom of life with Chinese characteristics. In today's construction of the community of human destiny and sustainable development, traditional Chinese philosophy shows its strong vitality. The study of Chinese traditional philosophy and its contemporary value is a very meaningful research topic in the new world development trend, and it will certainly arouse the thinking and resonance of all participants.