On the afternoon of May 21, Dr. Mohammad Ismail Khalid, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and his delegation visited the Hongkou Campus of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). President Li Yansong met with them and the two sides discussed how to jointly promote mutual learning and exchanges between the ancient civilizations of China and Egypt.

Li congratulated Dr. Ismail on his appointment as Secretary General. He introduced SISU’s engagement in China-Egypt and China-Arab mutual learning, collaboration and exchanges, and showcased its distinctive features, discipline development and global presence. Li emphasized the initiatives of global and area studies by leveraging its strengths in language studies and integrating archaeology, history, art, and cultural exchanges. He expressed his willingness to strengthen mutual learning and exchanges of civilizations with various parties in Egypt. He also stated SISU’s full support for the promotion of academic research and talent exchanges between China and Egypt, and sincerely invited Secretary General Ismail to participate in SISU’s 75th anniversary celebrations.

Secretary General Ismail expressed his gratitude to Li and SISU for their thoughtful reception and confirmed his full support for SISU’s digital research project on cultural relics in Egypt. He introduced the functions of Egypt’s SCA and the management processes of over 2,000 cultural relics sites, over 40 museums and numerous historical buildings. He highly commended the meticulous preparations by the project team over the past two years after he listened to the presentation on the project’s preparatory details and inquired about technical standards and implementation plans. He also praised the efforts of Professor Zhu Qingsheng’s and Professor Yan Haiying’s teams, expressing a willingness to strengthen in-depth collaboration with them to innovate cultural exchange mechanisms between China and Egypt as ancient civilizations.

Professor Hu Kaibao, assistant president, stated SISU’s support for the joint digital research project on the new discoveries at Saqqara with Egypt. Professor Zhu Qingsheng, director of World Arthistory Institute (WAI), shared the initial intentions and concepts for collaboration with Egypt via video. Professor Yan Haiying presented the project plan, detailing the research process and achievements on ancient Egyptian characters and civilization in China. The project members displayed their digital technology, and the two sides exchanged views on topics such as laboratory construction, multilingual publishing and digital media display. The project was jointly conducted by SISU and Egypt’s SCA, with technical support from Peking University and others. WAI will set up a project team, focusing on the digital collection, sorting, research, and interpretation of important artifacts recently excavated from Saqqara, the ancient burial site used by the ancient Egyptians for the longest time. The goal is to systematically and comprehensively acquire a collection of artifacts and document images worth in-depth study through digital means, enriching the understanding of ancient civilizations within the Chinese academic community. The project also explores new ways for ancient civilizations to collaborate on historical research and artifact preservation. Notably, this marks the first time Chinese universities have conducted field investigations and data collection at an Egyptian archaeological site, which will contribute to the progress of Egyptology and art history research in China.

Moamen Othman, head of Museums Sector of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and heads of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange and WAI attended the meeting.