On September 27^th, 2020 China (Qufu) International Confucius Cultural Festival and the 6^th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations were hold in Qufu City of Shandong Province. Chen Zhu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress, announced the opening. Xu Jialu, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress, and Ban Ki-moon, eighth secretary-general of the United Nations, sent message of congratulation. Liu Jiayi, secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee, Wang Xudong, curator of the Palace Museum, and heads of the Cultural Exchange Organization of Presenting China to the World attended the opening ceremony.

    Chen Zhu said that the international society had been changing with an unprecedented speed which was still accelerating. In addition the Covid-19 was spreading in the world. Both of them led to more severe global challenges. To cope with them together, we needed to build a community of mankind with a shared future; to improve mutual trust, eliminate doubts, exchange ideas and reach consensus with the help of civilization; to absorb benefit from all civilizations, including Confucianism and to find wisdom and method through the communication of civilizations.

    Liu Jiayi said that the government in Shandong Province firmly promoted the innovative transformation and innovative development of outstanding traditional Chinese culture. The local authority had built a batch of research communication platforms, including Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies; constructed a series of key cultural projects like Nishan Sacredland; started the “Integration of Chinese Ancient Books” which was a project to protect Chinese culture recorded in ancient books lost in other countries and got together scholars and experts from home and abroad, Nishan was more and more colorful in exchanges of different civilizations because more friends from all over the world entered the hometown of Confucius and more Chinese classical books were introduced to the international society form here.

    Wang Xudong said that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism would continue to care and support the development of culture and tourism in Shandong Province. He hoped that the governments in Shangong Province and Qufu City of Jining City would always see the protection of cultural relics as the most important thing; be creative when protected traditional culture; inherit and promote outstanding traditional Chinese culture represented by Confucianism and be in the leading position of Confucianism study, of the integration of culture and tourism and of the exploration of new methods to develop economy, of the inheritance and promotion of traditional Chinese culture and of the construction of socialism core value system.

    International Confucius Cultural Festival started in 1984 while Nishan Forum on World Civilizations was set in 2010. This year, the two events were hold as one for the first time. The theme of the cultural festival was “marking the 2571^st birthday of Confucius” and the theme for the forum was “future guided by culture” with three sub-topics, including “ancient eastern and western civilizations and a community for mankind with a shared future”.

    The event was hosted jointly by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, International Confucian Association and Shandong Province People’s Government. During the event held a high-level communication, 2 key speeches, 14 group dialogues as well as youth forum, Confucius Memorial Ceremony and so on.