The 2023 Yangtze River Culture Nanjing Forum was held on November 24th. Xin Changxing, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Lv Yansong, Chief Editor of Xinhua News Agency, attended the main forum and delivered speeches.
Xin Changxing, on behalf of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, extended his warm welcome to all the guests attending the forum. He said that almost all great civilizations in the world are nurtured on both sides of great rivers, as is evidenced by the Yangtze River and its culture. The Yangtze River, spanning thousands of miles, become stretched out when entering Jiangsu where it earned a beautiful and unique name - the Yangtze River.
The Yangtze River in Nanjing represents the interdependence with the city with the river and sea blending together, nourishing the millennium-long Jiangnan culture, the north-south blending of the Jianghuai culture, and the magnificent Jianghai culture.
He said Jiangsu will base itself on the long history of the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River, fully tap into the spiritual value carried by cultural relics and heritage, condense the cultural characteristics of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu, systematically build an overall pattern of protecting, inheriting, and promoting the Yangtze River culture, strive to make the Yangtze River culture a significant symbol of the province's exploration and construction of modern Chinese civilization, and make the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River National Cultural Park an important window for spreading the Chinese civilization to the world.
Noting that the great rivers are an important link in building a community with a shared future for mankind, Xin Changxing said Jiangsu will further deepen cooperation with all parties, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning, and make Jiangsu's contribution to promoting cultural affinity, cultural integration, and people-to-people communication among countries around the world.
Lv Yansong pointed out that the Yangtze River is an important carrier of the Chinese culture and civilization. General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourse on Yangtze River culture is an important component of the Xi Jinping Thought on Culture and a fundamental guideline for stepping up the coverage on the Yangtze River culture.
He said the Xinhua News Agency hoped to take this forum as an opportunity to further deepen exchanges, enhance consensus through cooperation, jointly write a new chapter in the Yangtze River Culture, and jointly plan a new vision for the sustainable development of the Yangtze River.
During her video speech, Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director General of UNESCO, stated that rivers are a bridge connecting different eras and cultures, and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development prioritizes river related issues. The UNESCO will actively leverage its advantages to promote cultural exchanges and sustainable development among countries and regions in the Yangtze River Basin.
When delivering a welcome speech, Han Liming, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, stated that Nanjing has formed a unique cultural identity and a confident, open, inclusive, and innovative urban characteristic in the long and rich nourishment of the Yangtze River culture. Under the guidance of the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, great changes have taken place along both banks of the river.
Tang Hongwu, academician of the CAE Member, secretary of the Party Committee of Hohai University, Eriberto Ulis, executive director of the Global Water Museum, and Wang Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, made keynote speeches around the theme of jointly creating a river cultural city community, promoting the development of river city civilization in the governance and mutual learning of rivers, establishing a new paradigm for sustainable development of the ecosystem, and the origin and formation of civilization in the Yangtze River basin.
