On May 14th, the International Symposium on Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage Protection: Cooperation, Education and Research was held at our university.

VIPs attended the meeting were as the followings:

HANG Chuon Naron, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of Cambodia;

Slim Khalbous, President of the International Association of Francophone Universities (AUF);

Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO East Asia Office;

Christian Thimonier, Chargé d'Affaires of the French Consulate in Wuhan;

Ying Zhang, representative of the China Scholarship Council (CSC), and other Chinese and foreign government officials, heads of international organizations, as well as more than 40 university presidents, academicians, scholars and technical experts from 12 countries around the world gathered at Luojia Mountain to discuss cultural exchanges and educational cooperation between China and foreign countries in the digital era. Pingwen Zhang, President of Wuhan University, attended the conference, and Yufeng Yuan, Vice President of Wuhan University, presided over it.

In his opening speech, Pingwen Zhang said that in the wave of technology, the use of digital technology for the protection, inheritance and dissemination of cultural heritage has attracted worldwide attention. Relying on its advantageous disciplines such as surveying, mapping and remote sensing, and information management, Wuhan University has achieved many excellent results in the digital preservation and innovative utilization of cultural heritage, providing practical experience for the protection and inheritance of global cultural heritage. Wuhan University is willing to join hands with experts from various countries to explore the integration path of digital technology and cultural heritage protection, safeguard the common human memory in the digital era, and promote international cooperation and educational innovation.

Slim Khalbous expressed his sincere gratitude to Wuhan University for its careful organization in his speech. He introduced the mission of AUF, the largest higher education and research institution in the world, emphasizing that the alliance's professional team provides consulting and tracking services for project design and implementation worldwide to promote the exchange and sharing of excellent practices, expertise and innovative achievements. "Cultural heritage protection in the digital era" is one of the themes of special concern to the AUF, and he hopes to promote extensive cooperation in this field among Francophone countries and regions.

HANG Chuon Naron said that digital humanities have become an important means to promote the protection of global common cultural heritage. Cambodia is willing to make its best efforts to strengthen strategic planning and deeply participate in the global dialogue on digital humanities and cultural heritage protection. It is hoped that China and Cambodia will make joint efforts to inherit and carry forward the fine traditions of the two countries in cultural heritage protection through digital technology cooperation.

Shahbaz Khan said that at the time of the deep integration of cultural heritage protection and digital technology, the problem we face is not only how to digitize the past, but also how to jointly reconstruct the future of cultural heritage in the rapidly evolving digital reality. He paid tribute to Wuhan University's exploration in this field and evaluated the symposium as "demonstrating the true potential of academic diplomacy".

On behalf of CSC, Ying Zhang congratulated Wuhan University and AUF on the successful holding of the symposium and paid tribute to the attending guests from AUF member institutions. She introduced the cooperation achievements made by CSC in supporting two-way exchanges with AUF member institutions in recent years and looked forward to continuing to strengthen cooperation in the fields of digital humanities and cultural heritage protection in the future.

In the keynote speech and round-table discussion sessions, scholars had academic discussions on topics such as Challenges and Strategies for Enabling Teachers to Use Generative Artificial Intelligence, Digital Approaches to Global Systems for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage, as well as themes like Vietnam in the Digital Age: Challenges and Practices in Cultural Heritage Protection and Joint Construction: Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage Protection. The participants also visited the Cultural Heritage Intelligent Computing Laboratory of Wuhan University.

This symposium was jointly organized by Wuhan University and AUF. Founded in Canada in 1961, AUF is the world's first university organization with more than 1,000 member institutions and the official executive entity of the Francophone Summit in the field of higher education and research. With the mission of promoting development through knowledge, the alliance is committed to building a Francophone scientific community from a global perspective and practicing the concept of pluralistic development according to local conditions. Wuhan University has been a member of AUF since 2006.