Outlook · Primary Learning | Promote the Exchange of Civilizations, Enhance the Communication and Influence of Chinese Civilization.

The rich philosophical thoughts, humanistic spirit, educational thoughts, moral concepts, etc., in China's excellent traditional culture, can provide beneficial enlightenment for understanding and transforming the world, for governing the country and administering politics, and for moral construction.

Establish a global perspective, adhere to innovation while maintaining integrity, and promote the exchange of civilizations in all aspects by expanding personnel exchanges, strengthening bilateral and multilateral cultural cooperation, continuously enriching exchange content, expanding cooperation channels, etc.

Photo by Liu Kun | Visitors at the Chengdu Museum visit the "Chinese Characters —— The Civilization of China in the Space of the Square" exhibition (photographed on June 24, 2023) / This publication

On June 2, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech when attending a symposium on the development of cultural heritage. He emphasized that, based on the profound foundation of more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, it is an inevitable path to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and to integrate Marxism's basic principles with Chinese realities and excellent traditional culture.

General Secretary Xi Jinping comprehensively summarized the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, profoundly pointed out the great significance of the "two combinations," proposed the significant judgment of building modern Chinese civilization, and pointed out the direction for creating new culture of our era.

Develop in inheritance

In the process of creatively transforming and innovatively developing excellent traditional Chinese culture, we should grasp the theoretical consciousness and historical initiative of the "two combinations," apply the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method, and refine the essence of China's 5,000-year civilization.

Adhere to the "two combinations" and create a new form of human civilization. Adhere to the basic Marxist viewpoint and the Chinese standpoint, strengthen the excavation and elaboration of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and make the most basic cultural genes of the Chinese nation compatible with contemporary culture and modern society. Special attention should be paid to excavating the essence of China's 5,000-year civilization, promoting excellent traditional culture, combining its essence with the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and method, and resolutely following the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Firm cultural confidence, inherit and promote the great wisdom accumulated by the Chinese nation for thousands of years. The rich philosophical thoughts, humanistic spirit, educational thoughts, moral concepts, etc., in China's excellent traditional culture, can provide beneficial enlightenment for understanding and transforming the world, for governing the country and administering politics, and for moral construction.

Persist in maintaining integrity and innovating, and promote excellent traditional Chinese culture with a modern vision. Treat traditional Chinese culture dialectically, adhere to the use of the ancient for the modern, and adhere to discriminative treatment and selective inheritance. Maintain integrity and innovate, promote the old and bring forth the new, use modern scientific and technological means to enrich the expression forms of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and let the cultural relics collected in the museum, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the characters written in ancient books come to life.

Promote the exchange of civilizations and widely absorb and learn from the achievements of human civilization. Adhere to the promotion of equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness of civilization, understand the recognition of different civilizations for value connotation with a broad mind, respect the exploration of different countries' people for their own development path, transcend civilization barriers with cultural exchanges, transcend civilization conflicts with cultural mutual learning, transcend civilization superiority with cultural coexistence, promote the common values of all mankind contained in Chinese civilization, and promote the construction of a community of shared future for mankind.

Promote Chinese Culture "Going Out"

In the international communication of Chinese culture, we should adhere to maintaining integrity and innovating, establish a global perspective, expand personnel exchanges, strengthen bilateral and multilateral cultural cooperation, continuously enrich exchange content, expand cooperation channels, etc., to promote the exchange of civilizations and comprehensively enhance the communication and influence of Chinese civilization.

Deepen external communication, enhance international recognition of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Deeply interpret the cultural roots of Chinese-style modernization, the community of shared future for mankind, and other major ideas, and strengthen the international communication of global civilization initiatives. Fully promote the translation, publication, and distribution of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important works, build joint communication platforms with domestic and foreign institutions, fully display the contemporary essence of Chinese culture and Chinese spirit, adhere to both elite communication and mass communication, academic interpretation and popular explanation, and comprehensively, accurately, and vividly explain the rich connotation, theoretical system, practical requirements of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, enhance international recognition of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

Coordinate all parties' efforts to improve the pattern of Chinese and foreign cultural exchange and mutual learning. Perfect the top-level design, study and formulate guidelines for promoting the development of Chinese and foreign cultural exchange and mutual learning. Based on in-depth research, systematically plan targets, content, paths, channels, implementation bodies, policy support, and resource coordination, building a cultural soft power that matches China's comprehensive national strength and international status. Strengthen collaboration, coordinate government, professional institutions, enterprises, and other cultural forces, utilize international organizations, non-governmental organizations, Chinese-funded enterprises, overseas Chinese, media think tanks, artistic groups, and cultural and museum institutions, and build a multi-level cultural exchange system. Play a safeguarding role in policy, establish a comprehensive support system for promoting Chinese culture abroad, and stimulate the creativity and competitiveness of the main bodies of Chinese cultural international dissemination.

Conduct systematic research, strengthen innovation in discourse on cultural exchange, and build a narrative system. Deepen the theoretical study of excellent traditional Chinese culture, strengthen joint research with domestic and foreign universities, social science research institutions, important think tanks, and expert scholars, and systematically showcase the spiritual core and conceptual value of excellent traditional Chinese culture. Delve into and refine the deep connotations of thoughts, concepts, spirit, values, etc., contained in Chinese civilization, and present the essence of Chinese culture. Strengthen the construction of the Chinese culture's external discourse system, focusing on the dissemination of contemporary valuable thoughts and value concepts in Chinese civilization, clarifying culturally what China is today and what kind of people the Chinese are. Emphasize the dissemination of ideas and values in Chinese civilization that have global significance, making clear culturally what China's development means to the world.

Strengthen knowledge dissemination, implement a project for publishing Chinese civilization abroad. Utilize the unique advantages of foreign publishing in cultural communication, plan and publish more quality books that reflect Chinese spirit, Chinese values, Chinese wisdom, and Chinese solutions, and create international publishing brands for the new era. Strengthen foreign translation, tell Chinese stories with languages that bridge Chinese and foreign cultures, and through excellent translation works. Actively play the role of international organizations, industry associations, universities, and research institutions, expand the scale of overseas Chinese translators, broaden the breadth and depth of Chinese and foreign cooperative publishing, promote the localization of Chinese cultural series publications overseas, and translate and publish them. Utilize digital publishing channels, strengthen content supply, and enhance the digital, industrial, and scaled level of Chinese civilization's foreign publishing.

Enhance cultural interactions, create international communication and dialogue platforms. Emphasize interpersonal communication, improve various cultural communication platforms, combine regional cooperation mechanisms, public diplomacy, etc., to expand and deepen cultural exchanges. Focus on governance and global governance, cultural dialogue, youth exchanges, and other key areas, to create influential international dialogue platforms. Utilize international cultural resources, do well in international cultural exchange awards selection, strengthen bilateral and multilateral cultural cooperation, and enhance the communication and influence of Chinese civilization. (The author is the Dean of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, China Foreign Languages Bureau. This text is compiled based on the speech at the seminar on the release of the think tank report "The 'Second Combination' Changing China—Theoretical Innovation and Practice in Building Modern Chinese Civilization.")