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More than 4,000 years ago, the legendary Chinese ruler Yu the Great
was said to have met with tribal leaders in today's Bengbu, Anhui
province, thereby setting the foundation for a united country. Now the
city has a new role: to witness communication of different cultures and
exploration of a shared future for a much larger community. Bengbu will be the permanent host of the Taihu World Cultural Forum, a
key national-level platform promoting cultural dialogue between China
and the world, it was announced on Wednesday during a news conference in
Beijing. The forum, launched in 2008, was named after Taihu Lake in the
Yangtze River Delta. The annual conferences have previously been held in
Suzhou, Jiangsu province and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; Shanghai; the
Macao Special Administrative Region; and Beijing. In addition,
forum-affiliated, high-level symposiums on traditional Chinese medicine
and traditional craftsmanship have been held over the past decade. In 2019, a traditional craftsmanship exchange center affiliated with
the forum was established in Bengbu when a forum was held there,
attracting hundreds of politicians, scholars, entrepreneurs and cultural
notables to share ideas and deepen mutual understanding among cultures. "Choosing a permanent venue for the forum will give stronger
confidence for the cultural circle," Yan Zhaozhu, chairman of the forum,
said on Wednesday. "There's still noise and misleading information
against China's development. With the forum, we want to break down
ignorance and biases through truth, and the permanent platform for
cultural dialogue can be a place to better display a panorama of China
from more dimensions." That explains in part why Bengbu was chosen as the permanent venue.
The city is on the Huaihe River, which is generally considered to mark
the boundary between northern and southern China. Yan said hosting the
forum there will enable more people from overseas to see China beyond
the developed coastal areas. An expo park in Bengbu that features ancient residences was chosen as
the main venue for the forum. Nationwide, about 450 traditional homes
have been preserved and relocated to the park. Yan said the park's rich
historical atmosphere can give people a better idea of the significance
of traditional culture in a modern society. "Communication and mutual learning among different civilizations is
rooted in people-to-people exchanges," Zhou Shuchun, publisher and
editor-in-chief of China Daily, a co-host of the forum, said at the news
conference. "The Taihu World Cultural Forum is devoted to establishing a
platform for sustainable communication. … Through dialogues in various
forms, we believe friendship among people from different countries can
be deepened and can give lasting motivation." Irina Bokova, former secretary-general of the UNESCO, said in a video
clip played during Wednesday's news conference: "It is the deep
humanistic vision of the Taihu World Cultural Forum that makes it so
important." "In these challenging times, it is again culture that will help us
heal the distress of the pandemic, that will make social inclusion a
reality, that will make us more confident in the common future of
humanity," Bokova said. Li Huilai, deputy director of the Chinese People's Institute of
Foreign Affairs, said at the news conference, "Each country has its
unique culture and history; not a single one is better or superior, and
the difference is due to their characters and geographic regions." Li added, "Human beings have been advancing through encounters
between cultures.…The principle of equality, inclusion and mutual
learning should be maintained today." Huang Xiaowu, Party secretary of Bengbu, said the sixth edition of
the annual conference of the Taihu forum will be held in October, and he
praised the forum as an opportunity to accelerate the overall
development of Bengbu.
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