Introduction to Songshan Forum

“Songshan Forum—On Chinese and World Civilizations,” referred to as the Songshan Forum, is an international high culture forum co-sponsored by the China International Culture Exchange Center, the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University, Central China Real Estate Limited (China), and the Foundation for Transmitting Chinese History and Developing Chinese Civilization, Henan Province.

Relying on the pleasant natural, humanistic, and ecological environment of Songshan Mountain, this forum, rooted in Chinese traditional culture, under the support of the provincial Foundation, and lead by experts from home and abroad, adheres to the concepts of “having mutual respect, seeking common ground, transforming the old and establishing the new, and starting cultural dialogues.” Academic leaders, experts and professionals, culture elites, and representatives of diverse cultures in conjunction with political leaders, government think tank members, and senior business executives all gather at the forum to advocate for the diversity of world cultures and facilitate exchange between cultures with the goal of enhancing mutual understanding and mutual respect among people. Our ultimate purpose is to seek collective development through friendly engagement with each other and to make meaningful contributions to the establishment of a harmonious world.

Forum Orientation: cultural exchange, culture studies, sharing achievements, professional development, and industrial growth

Forum Concept: The forum complies with the laws of People’s Republic of China, and adheres to the principle of operating as an activity for public welfare and integrating social resources. In accordance with the mechanism of an open, tolerant, and equal dialogue, the forum will promote exchanges and dialogues between Chinese and other cultures to help spread Chinese culture worldwide, support Chinese people everywhere, and promote global peace.

Forum Objective: The forum will operate as a channel through which the Central Plains Economic Zone can start to build connections with the world, as a platform to engage in dialogue with other world cultures, and as an important vehicle for international cultural communication. Songshan Mountain will become a sacred place for the scholars to adore, a spiritual home for the Chinese around the world to yearn for, and a cradle for nurturing people and new ideas.

Forum Vision: The forum, which will be held annually in Dengfeng City, Henan, will invite famous political leaders, scholars and entrepreneurs from home and abroad to attend. The general topics will center on the development and transmission Chinese civilization, and placing it in dialogue with other world cultures. Subtopics will be put forward as needed. Dialogue will be encouraged through keynote speeches, lectures, group discussions, and informal exchanges. The papers will be collected and published. The ideas suggested by scholars will be presented to the relevant authorities.

Forum Location: The Songshang Forum will establish a permanent location in Dengfeng City, a headquarters in Zhengdong New District of Zhengzhou City, and a liaison office in Beijing all with the goal of presenting Chinese civilization, exhibiting the features of the Central Plains, and highlighting the diverse needs of a culturally pluralistic world.

Transformation & Innovation: toward a Dialogical Civilization

Creative transformation and innovative evolution are not only major problems encountered by Chinese civilization but also conundrums faced by all other civilizations in the present world. The rapid shift of time and space impels every civilization to continuously renew itself in bid to preserve its vigor and vitality. Symbiosis and mutual assimilation become manifestly mandatory among civilizations. In the two crossed dimensions of ancient-present and China-West, all extant world civilizations will inevitably undergo the aforementioned evolutional process, which should by no means be purposeless, but be consciously and conscientiously guided by human—the responsible moral subject of every civilization. The imminent task of current human beings is to leverage the strengths and creatively transform the core values of their own traditions, which therefore could be moulded to encompass the profound history as well as newly emerged and emerging modern concepts. Hopefully every human civilization will be able to fully demonstrate its unique ethos while being harmoniously integrated into the confluence of world civilizations.
The future civilization ought not to be self-confined or isolated, nor to be involved in antagonism or clashing, but to be dialogical instead. Based on civilizational dialogues, the dialogical civilization enables every civilization to become aware of its own weaknesses and appreciative of the values of other civilizations through dialogue. The civilizational evolution is not defined as one civilization conquers another or a small number of civilizations dominating the trend of world civilization, but as a course of diverse civilizations jointly shaping their destinies and sharing prosperity. Under this practice, every civilization will voluntarily open itself, improve itself, and consummately embark on dialogical civilization. The drastic turbulences in the past centuries have prompted the urgent need for human beings to construct a mechanism for civilizational dialogues—a significant step toward dialogical civilization. Transformation and innovation stand here as two crucial factors for this step.