Editor's Note: The 2023 Beijing Culture Forum, the second of its kind, will kick off in the Chinese capital on September 14. The two-day event focuses on advancing fine culture and promoting exchanges and will see a main forum, five sub-forums, and several related cultural activities. GDToday is presenting a series of interviews with cultural celebrities to give you a glimpse of the upcoming forum and the latest cultural developments in China.
Alexis Lavis, Distinguished Young Scholar and Associate Professor at the School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China (RUC), said many achievements have been made in China during the last decade, such as the Olympic Games, the high-quality TV series and more.
But for his part, Lavis was impressed by the permanency of Shufa (calligraphy). “Many people practice this very high peak, summit of culture, writing, drawing, concentrating. And the fact that so many Chinese people still practice Shufa, that’s a very high point.”
Lavis pointed out that he spent almost all his life promoting ancient Chinese texts in the West to make them understandable. And now in China, he also tries to make some elements of Western culture more understandable.
When Lavis was a very young student, he read the French version of Zhuangzi and was totally amazed by Zhuangzi’s text. Lavis believes that one of the key elements of Chinese culture is philosophy, and Daojia (Daoism), Zhuangzi, Laozi, Huainanzi, Buddhism (Fojiao), and Rujia (Confucianism) are some of the most amazing productions in human history in terms of cleverness, deepness, but also existential practicality.
Reporter: Monica
Editor: Olivia, Nan, James
Video provided to GDToday
