The opening session for the 3rd annual Symposium on China Studies took place Monday at the Regent Hotel Beijing. Over 40 senior sinologists and Chinese scholars were present in the event.
Hosted by China's Ministry of Culture and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the three day symposium aims at providing a platform for sinologists and scholars to exchange ideas on China studies while enhancing an understanding of China in their respective countries.
Ding Wei, China's deputy minister of culture says the developing China has shared interests and a shared future with other countries and is important to form closer ties with the world.
"The world, in return, is more than ever in need of knowing China. Such a need not only derives from politics and economics, but from the society and the people. In fact, people outside of China are concerning more about what are the views and values of the Chinese, and how on earth do the Chinese think," says Ding.
Tim Wright, president of the British Academy's Area Panel for China, hosted the first session of the symposium. He says, "the international gathering of sinologists showed a consensus among the international community that there's a need in better understanding China, as the benefits is huge."
Aside from noticing the economic significance of the symposium, sinologists also interpreted the symposium from a cultural aspect.
Zheng Yongnian, professor and director of East Asian Institute of National University of Singapore observes mentioned China's value in a globalized economy.
"The Chinese is valuing more concepts of world order as China is now going global, and it's playing a more important role in influencing the world's conception of world order.
"Every country has its own perception of world order, which is based on their cultures. The Chinese perception of world order is different from that of the western countries. It's non-religious, so it's open rather than exclusive. This is supposedly to be reflected in the world order that it's trying to build," said Zheng.
