The opening ceremony of the 2022 China (Qufu) International Confucius Cultural Festival and the Eighth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations was held in Qufu, Shandong province on Sept 27.

More than 600 guests, including government officials, foreign envoys, experts and scholars, and representatives from media outlets, attended the opening ceremony via online and offline channels.

The opening ceremony of the 2022 China (Qufu) International Confucius Cultural Festival and the Eighth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations is held in Qufu, Shandong province on Sept 27. [Photo/Dazhong Daily]

The event is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the International Confucian Association, and the Shandong Provincial People's Government.

This year, the theme of the Confucius cultural festival is "Commemorating the 2,573rd Anniversary of the Birth of Confucius", and the theme of the Nishan forum is "Diversity of Human Civilizations and Shared Values of Humanity".

During his speech at the opening ceremony, Wu Weihua, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that the Confucian ideas of harmony, including exchanges and dialogues, inclusiveness and mutual learning, have played an active role in the continuity and inheritance of the Chinese civilization for 5,000 years, which have also provided important inspiration for the exchanges, cooperation and mutual learning among different cultures around the world.

Liu Yandong, president of the International Confucian Association, noted that the common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom represent  the common values of all civilizations, reflect the importance of values for people in all countries, and meet the trend of history and the needs of modern times.

Li Ganjie, Party secretary of Shandong, pointed out that fine traditional Chinese culture has provided rich nourishment for the new path of Chinese modernization, and injected spiritual strength and enriched the pursuit of value.

"We will vigorously promote the creative transformation and development of fine traditional Chinese culture, forge new heights of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, explore new models of cultural inheritance, and expand new ways of cultural communication, so as to contribute Shandong's strength to promoting the common values of all mankind," Li said.

Over 40 activities such as high-level talks, the Awards Ceremony of the 17th UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, and the Confucius Memorial Ceremony, are scheduled to take place during this year's Confucius cultural festival and Nishan forum.