2006: Philosophical Reflections and Exchanges between China and Korea

A book

January 2006, we Published a book entitled: Interpretation of Contemporary Civilizations and the Charter of Human Responsibilities (Beijing: Tuanjie Press, 2006, ISBN: 7-80214-110-9/D59). It includes the Charter of Human Responsibilities, important articles which may help to understand the deep meaning of the Charter, and reflections written by people from different countries and groups. Some papers are from the 2005 Forum of Asian Civilizations and the Charter of Human Responsibilities, some were new contributions of the Charter Committee. In addition, a few speeches of Pierre Calame, Edgar Morin, and others, were taken as contributions to this book.
This book first time provides Chinese and English versions of the Charter of Human Responsibilities in a formal publication form to the Chinese public. 2000 copies were distributed through bookstores, meetings, and other occasions.

The Philosophy of Human-Nature Relationship in Asian and European Civilizations

August 2006, in the name of fph. and Northeast Normal University, we organized an international forum to discuss the Philosophy of Human-Nature Relationship in Asian and European Civilizations in Changchun China (August 22 to 24). Over 40 scholars attended this forum from China, USA, France, and Korea. Gustavo Marin, representing the fph delivered important speeches in the opening and closing ceremonies. About 200 students and observers attended the opening ceremony. Some of them stayed for group discussions. All participants of this meeting were provided with the Charter of Human Responsibilities. The main concepts and ideas of the Charter were applied in examination of the traditional ideas about human-nature relations.
Contributions to this forum are selected to prepare our second book, which will be printed in 2007. More contributions will be taken into this book before publication. During the forum, Gustavo Marin made an important suggestion: translate key works originally in Chinese language into European languages and later may produce them in other languages. This may significantly improve the mutual understanding of peoples. After the forum, the Northeast Normal University has confirmed its support to this proposal. A document translation centre within the Faculty for Asian Civilization Studies in this university is under organization. This centre will unfold full scale work in 2007 (this proposal will be developed as a separate plan).

Chinese Korea communications

The forum created an opportunity for Chinese Korea communications. After this forum, Professor Zhang from Korea invited 4 Chinese scholars to visit Korea. We actually jointly held an one day workshop in Seoul, called Korea, China in Asia Culture, History, and Politics. In additional to formal presentations, the attenders of this workshop had worm discussions on the broader issues, especially regional security, modernity, and multi nation relationships. Both sides agreed to organize following up exchange activities to enhance the mutual understanding of the two peoples, in particular, among the youth of the two countries. This will be cooperated into our plan for year 2007.

For 2007...

Based upon the above information and judgment, the main work for 2007 already stands out:
1. publish a book on human-nature relationship
2. organizing a China-Korea exchange activity, possibly involve the Japanese part, focusing on peace and regional security.
3. continually to organize workshops for the revision of the Charter
4. participate other international and regional events.