The International Conference to Commemorate the 2575th Anniversary of Confucius’ Birth, which also served as the 7th Congress of the International Confucian Association (ICA), was held in Beijing from October 19 to 21.
The conference began at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the morning of October 19. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, addressed the opening ceremony. This year’s opening ceremony had the largest attendance to date, with over 730 guests from approximately 110 countries and regions, including nearly 300 international participants. The event was presided over by ICA President Sun Chunlan. Former Japanese Prime Minister and Council Chair of the ICA Fukuda Yasuo, former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin delivered speeches either in person or through other means.
During the 7th Congress of the International Confucian Association, held on the afternoon of October 19, a new leadership team was elected: Sun Chunlan as President of ICA, Fukuda Yasuo as Council Chair, and Hao Ping, Secretary of the CPC Peking University Committee and Chairman of Peking University Council, as Executive Vice-President. YCA Dean Dong Qiang was elected as Vice President of ICA.
On the morning of October 21, the Seventh Executive Committee of ICA held its first meeting. ICA President Sun Chunlan presided over the meeting and delivered a speech. Forty-nine committee members from nearly 30 countries and regions, including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Seychelles, Iceland, and Brazil, participated. Eighteen members spoke during the meeting, including Miyamoto Yūji, Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, HongSik Park, Vincent Meriton, Phinij Jarusombat, Ong Tee Keat, Hao Ping, Meng Man, Kang Zhen, and Dong Qiang. Topics of discussion included the interpretation and dissemination of Confucianism, the preservation and development of fine traditional cultures, and the exchange of ideas among civilizations.
Dean Dong Qiang and the German sinologist Prof Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer
Dean Dong participated in cultural events commemorating the 2575th Anniversary of Confucius’ Birth. On September 26, a calligraphy exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the International Confucian Association opened at Beijing Confucian Temple and the Imperial College. Prof. Dong’s calligraphy work, Eight Poems by Zhu Xi, is on display and included in the collection Confucianism: Cultural Diversity and Modernization. The exhibition was also featured at Beijing International Hotel and will travel to Shaoxing and Guiyang in the future.
On the evening of October 20, the modern dance drama Journey to the West was performed at the Capital Library Theater. This production was a collaboration between French composer Laurent Petitgirard, Chinese dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin, and YCA Dean Dong Qiang, who served as director, translator, and advisor. The dance drama had previously achieved great success at the Marigny Theater in Paris on May 21, where it was warmly received by an audience of over 800, including cultural and academic dignitaries as well as overseas Chinese in France.
Vincent Meriton, former Vice President of Seychelles, Dong Qiang, dance drama Journey to the West artists and others after the performance
Prof. Dong has been deeply involved in the comparative study of Chinese and French cultures, serving as a cultural bridge between the two nations. His French translation of The Analects and the book Tang Shi Zhi Lu (The Road of Tang Poetry), co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, are bestsellers in France.
In September 2021, then ICA President Liu Yandong invited Prof. Dong to serve as a special advisor to the ICA. At the invitation of the ICA, he presided over an online donation ceremony for the photocopy of the Wenlan-edition Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (Siku Quanshu) at the Wenlan Belvedere in Hangzhou on September 22, 2021. On May 21 and 22, 2024, Prof. Dong hosted the subforum of the ICA 2024 Forum of Civilizations: Harmony and Unity at Musée Guimet, Paris. Guests at the Olympics-themed subforum included Jean-François Lamour, a French Olympic fencing champion and former Minister of Sports of France; Éric Monnin, Ambassador for Paris 2024; and Ding Ning, a Chinese Olympic table tennis champion.
On the subforum of the ICA 2024 Forum of Civilizations: Harmony and Unity
