The Chinese Department of Tsinghua held the first in a series of "Zhu Ziqing -- Honored Professor Lectures" in the library April 26. The aim of these lectures is to commemorate Zhu Ziqing (1898-1948), the former dean of the Department of Chinese Literature. Zhu is renowned as one of the "Four Tutors" in the Institute of Chinese Classics and had a profound impact on Tsinghua's later development.
Guest lecturers will be well-known scholars from China and abroad who have varying backgrounds.
The first speaker was Liu Zhongshu, president of Jilin University, who spoke on the topic "Creating a Modern and Advanced Chinese Culture in the Global Society." Liu said that when analyzing cultural problems, Chinese should first determine the proper methodology, then examine and deal with problems systematically and completely.
When building a modern culture, he said, Chinese should overcome the disadvantages of culture conservatism, which has been trendy since the 1990s, and view traditional culture with a discriminating eye.
In solving the problems of globalization and localization, tolerance of other cultures is vital, Liu pointed out. The creation of modern Chinese culture should take into consideration the realities of life China and the characteristics of Chinese people, so as to give a complete picture of the past and the present, and the differences between the East and West, he said.
The lecture series will continue for an undetermined period.
(Deng Di, 05/13/2002)
