The 11th World Forum on Cultural Development opened at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa
The 11th World Cultural Development Forum was successfully held at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa on August 21, 2025. This forum was jointly organised by the Department of Philosophy and the Confucius Institute of the University of the Western Cape，the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies and the School of Philosophy of Hubei University, the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University, the School of Marxism of Shandong Normal University, the Department of Politics of Central China Normal University and Hubei society of ethical studies. More than 30 scholars from China, South Africa, the United States, the Philippines, India and other countries attended the conference.
Professor Jialian Li from the School of Philosophy of Hubei University presided over the opening ceremony. Professor Oritsegbube Anthony Oyowe, the head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Western Cape in the Republic of South Africa, and Professor Jiang Chang, the deputy minister of the School of Politics at Central China Normal University, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. In his opening remarks, Professor Oyowe pointed out that culture is not only static but also dynamic. It is the place where history and reality converge.
“The 11th World Cultural Development Forum offers us an opportunity to engage in dialogue and exchange from a cultural perspective with an open mind,” Professor Oyowe said. “Cultural issues are a key topic of study for African philosophers. African philosophers have discovered the philosophical implications of the cultural diversity of the African continent. At the same time, they are also attempting to use African culture to solve the technical problems of modern society. The cultural diversity of Africa provides a foundation and methodological guidance for us to solve the problems of our times.”
Professor Oyowe emphasised that self-identity confirmation and cognitive resources of African culture have profoundly influenced African philosophy.
“Culture has not only had a profound impact on African colonisation but also on the thinking systems of Africans. In today’s rapidly globalising world, we welcome and thank you for holding the 11th World Cultural Development Forum at the University of the Western Cape.
“We also thank the outstanding scholars who will make keynote speeches and presentations at the conference. Your discussions will provide us with new ideas and concepts, allowing us to engage in our discussions and dialogues with an open mind,” Professor Oyowe said.
Professor Jiang Chang, a specially appointed Chang-Jiang professor of the Ministry of Education of China and a senior professor at Hubei University, emphasised in his speech that global fairness and justice and world peace are extremely complex issues of our times. They require scholars from all over the world to conduct research from different disciplines and work together to solve them theoretically.
He stated that “today we are holding the 11th World Cultural Development Forum at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, with the theme of global fairness and justice and world peace. On the one hand, we hope to further draw the attention of scholars from all over the world to this issue and encourage them to conduct research on it. On the other hand, we also hope that the experts attending the conference will contribute their ideas and suggestions to solve this major issue of our times.”
After Professor Jiang Chang’s speech, Professor Wang Xinyan, a specially appointed Chang-Jiang professor of the Ministry of Education of China and a senior professor at Wuhan University, delivered a keynote speech titled “Jointly Promoting Global Ecological Civilization Construction”. He focused on the urgency of ecological civilization construction to illustrate the importance of achieving global fairness and justice and world peace. After the speeches and the keynote presentation, a ceremony was held for Chinese scholars to present books to the University of the Western Cape.
This forum will conduct in-depth discussions around the theme of “Global Justice and Equity and Permanent World Peace”. Scholars attending the forum will express their opinions and engage in discussions on topics such as global ecological justice, global fairness, well-ordered societies and civilized order, and cultural diversity from their unique knowledge and cultural perspectives. The forum will also adopt the “Declaration of Cape Town on Achieving Permanent Peace in the Pursuit of World Justice and Equity – The 11th World Culture Development Forum (2025)”.
It is reported that the World Cultural Development Forum was initiated by Hubei University and officially established in 2013. It has been successfully held ten times in China, the United States, India, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Egypt, Israel, the United Kingdom and other countries.
The achievements and consensus reached in the discussion of world cultural development forum have generated wide international resonance. The forum focuses on the main problems facing the development of world culture today, constantly promoting equal exchanges and dialogues across cultures, and providing an important international academic exchange and dialogue platform for the construction of mainstream human value culture and the formation of moral and value consensus for all mankind.