An exhibition of modern Chinese water-ink paintings takes place in Sri Lanka in October 2018. Photo: SOHU

How to continuously enhance the influence of Chinese culture has become an important topic for research.

With the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution, the competition of values that lies behind cultural competition is bound to become more intense, said Chen Zhongyi, director of the Institute of Foreign Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. As such, we urgently need to strengthen our own cultural fundamentals. Only when our own culture is good enough can we be respected by all and can we better learn from foreign culture.

Rong Yueming, director of the Institute of Literature at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that Western culture still occupies a strong position in today’s global cultural landscape, and Chinese culture is still regarded as a traditional civilization with a long history.

Tu Keguo, director of the Institute of Cultural Studies at the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said that the research, development, inheritance and promotion of Chinese culture should be facilitated in international cultural exchanges.

Efforts should be made to tap and develop traditional cultural resources and to dig deeper into the wisdom, way of life and values within the inherent cultural resources of the Chinese nation. We should present and promote these positive values to the world, for example, harmony without uniformity and righteousness over gain, Tu continued.

Tu suggested protecting Chinese cultural resources; combining the development of Chinese cultural resources with economic development, social development and cultural development; and facilitating cultural tourism and cultural industrialization. It is necessary to formulate a clear and sound cultural strategy, create an international cultural brand and continuously enhance the international influence of Chinese culture.

Rong said that with the construction of the Belt and Road, it is important not only to present the long history of the Chinese nation and the splendor of Chinese culture to the world, but more importantly to show the spirit and mindset of contemporary Chinese.

We should clearly express to the world that China wants to achieve a vision of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation with all countries in the world, Rong said. We need to convince the whole world that the ancient Chinese civilization will not only rejuvenate itself but also form a relationship of mutual learning, mutual understanding and common prosperity with the other civilizations of the world.

The concept of a community of shared future for mankind reflects the global value of Chinese culture in the contemporary era. Rong said that it is necessary to promote the influence of Chinese culture through the global spread of the concept of a community of shared future for mankind.

Rong suggested further spreading the methods and means of communication, especially fully applying modern communication technology to improve efficiency.

Regional culture is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. Liu Xinjun, a professor from the School of Marxism at Jilin University, said that since the reform and opening up, China has carried out a review of the history of cultural development, cultural phenomena and cultural characteristics of various regions. Numerous regional cultural studies have been published.

Despite these achievements, Liu said that there are still shortcomings in regional cultural research. These shortcomings include scattered research forces, lack of integration, lagging interaction among regional cultures and lack of comparative research. In addition, the spiritual identities that are the essence of many regional fine cultures are yet to be refined and displayed.