Ahead of the second World Conference of Classics, scholars in China have highlighted the enduring relevance of classical works, noting that ancient wisdom still holds important lessons and practical value for solving modern challenges and advancing social progress.
The conference will be held in Athens, Greece, on June 9 and 10. It will bring together leading scholars in classical studies, as well as experts in civilization, culture and archaeology from China and other countries, to discuss issues related to classical civilizations and to promote academic exchanges and consensus-building in global classical studies.
After nearly a year of work, Huang Weiwei, a professor at Beijing International Studies University, has finished translating an Aristophanes comedy into Chinese. For her, the classical literature from 2,500 years ago feels remarkably close to home.
"The work is very close to real life. The latter half of it shows us that good people can easily become bad once they have money, but is it true that bad people will become better just because they don't have money? It's actually not like that. Returning to classical and ancient times, we will see that ancient wisdom has a profound understanding of the world and humanity. It can provide us with infinite wisdom, and at this point, the classical is connected to the modern. They are all dealing with human problems," Huang said.
According Chen Siyi, a tenured assistant professor at Peking University, the development of spiritual civilization demands constantly returning to where it all began to draw renewed wisdom from the past. He calls this the "eternal shuttle run."
"In fact, it is a primitive expression of each culture's own survival experience and civilization ideas. I think this original expression is not replicable and will never be outdated. Throughout world history, the creation and development of spiritual civilization has seen every innovation as a new era where cultural practitioners constantly return to the starting point of civilization and extract resources from it," Chen said.
Roger T. Ames, humanities chair professor at Peking University, emphasized that classical traditions from China in particular offer essential frameworks for addressing contemporary global crises through shared human values.
"World hunger, all of these different problems facing the next generation, require cooperation. When you look at the fundamental Confucian values, they are inclusion, inclusiveness. They are getting the most out of human experiences, sharing," said Ames.
The second World Conference of Classics is jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, the Greek Ministry of Culture, and the Academy of Athens.
In addition to the opening ceremony, plenary session and closing ceremony, the conference will feature four parallel forums focusing on topics including virtue and education, ethical communities in changing societies, civilization-based approaches to global order, and the role of humanistic values in the digital age.
The inaugural World Conference of Classics was held in Beijing in 2024. The event drew over 600 participants, including those from related departments and institutions of China and Greece, and experts, scholars, cultural figures, youth representatives and media professionals from around the world.
Centuries-old classics remain relevant as lens into human nature, civilization: scholars
