Inaugural Meeting of the China-Africa Language and Cultural Comparative Studies Committee and Symposium on “The Formation and Circulation of Classics in African and African Diasporic Literature”
Date and Venue: 13–14 December 2019, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Brief Summary
Held in Chengdu on 13–14 December 2019, the inaugural meeting of the China-Africa Language and Cultural Comparative Studies Committee, together with the symposium on “The Formation and Circulation of Classics in African and African Diasporic Literature,” marked a significant milestone in the development of African and African diasporic literary studies in China. Jointly organized by the newly established committee, the School of Foreign Languages at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and the African and African American Literature Institute of Hangzhou Dianzi University, the event also received support from a number of universities, journals, and research centers. More than one hundred scholars from over forty universities and research institutions in China and abroad participated in the conference.
The establishment of the committee was especially noteworthy because it created China’s first secondary academic association specifically dedicated to comparative studies of Chinese, African, and African diasporic languages and cultures. As emphasized by the organizers, the committee was founded to support China’s Belt and Road Initiative, promote civilizational exchange and mutual learning, and build an open interdisciplinary platform for dialogue on language, literature, and culture. It aims to strengthen academic collaboration nationwide, foster innovative research, and contribute to the development of scholarly discourse on China-Africa and African diasporic cultural relations.
Speakers at the inaugural ceremony highlighted both the academic and strategic significance of the new committee. They underlined the long-standing importance of African literature within world literature, noting the major progress already made by Chinese scholars in African literary history, African diasporic literature, and African American literary studies. The committee’s future scope, moreover, was defined broadly: it would address not only African local languages and literary cultures, but also the writings and thought of Black diasporic authors, critics, theorists, and philosophers across the world.
The symposium held on the same occasion further demonstrated the intellectual vitality of this emerging field. Scholars from China and Africa delivered presentations on African and African diasporic literature, cosmopolitanism, community-building, and cross-cultural literary circulation. Particularly meaningful were discussions of the historical translation and reception of Chinese literature in Africa and the Arab world, including the early translation of Lu Xun’s fiction in Egypt. In this sense, the event not only celebrated the founding of a new academic body, but also opened a broader conversation on literary exchange, comparative scholarship, and the place of African and African diasporic studies in global literary research.
