Lanzhou University Hosts China–Central Asia Academic Forum on Children’s Literature

Video by Huang Bo

Lanzhou University (LZU) hosted the China–Central Asia Academic Forum on Children’s Literature at its Chengguan Campus on November 6 and 7. The university’s School of Chinese Language and Literature and Research Center for Youth Culture organized the forum. Experts and scholars from China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan held in-depth discussions on the theme “Childhood, the Silk Road, and the Future: Exchanges and Cooperation in Children’s Literature from a Cross-Cultural Perspective.”

The forum in session

At the opening ceremony, Professor Sha Yongzhong, vice president of Lanzhou University, said the University Alliance of Belt and Road (UAB&R), established through a joint effort led by LZU, now has 197 member universities from 31 countries and regions across five continents. He noted that the new forum draws on LZU’s academic strengths, builds on its tradition of Central Asian studies, and helps expand the international reach of Chinese children’s literature. It also promotes international cooperation in writing, translation, publishing, and cross-cultural research in the field, he added.

Group photo of participating experts and scholars

Using childhood and literature as a bridge, the forum strengthened people-to-people ties between China and Central Asia, fostering mutual understanding, friendship, and a sense of shared purpose. It provided an open and inclusive platform for high-level academic dialogue and mutual learning in children’s literature. The forum also helped deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative in the writing, translation, and publishing of children’s literature and in cross-cultural research, making a distinctive contribution to building a China–Central Asia community with a shared future.

(Text and photos by Lanzhou University)