On October 28th, the "2024 'Belt and Road' High-level Medical Professionals' TCM Seminar," sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and organized by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, opened at the university. Participants included health ministry officials, deans of medical schools, department heads of hospitals, pharmaceutical company executives, and medical practitioners from countries and regions such as the United States, France, Belgium, Malaysia, Mongolia, Hungary, Malta, South Africa, Morocco, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Xu Jianguang, Director of the Education, Science, Culture, and Health Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress; Zhou Qinjian, Director of the International Exchange Division of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission; Chinese Academy of Sciences Academicians Chen Kaixian and Lin Guoqiang; Ji Guang, President of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; and Vice Presidents Shu Jing and Zhong Liwei attended the opening ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by Shu Jing, with Zhong Liwei delivering the welcome speech.

In his speech, Zhou Qinjian mentioned that the seminar is a key project of Shanghai's educational opening-up, providing a platform for high-quality exchanges and cooperation among medical professionals from "Belt and Road" countries, and promoting the exchange and mutual learning between traditional and modern medicine. He encouraged the university to further leverage its disciplinary and professional advantages in opening-up services to play a more significant role in talent cultivation, industry-university-research-application integration, and cultural exchanges.

In his speech, Xu Jianguang emphasized that the "Belt and Road" High-level Medical Professionals' TCM Seminar, as an important platform for the international dissemination of TCM in Shanghai, has enhanced the understanding of TCM by countries around the world and has led to broader international exchanges and in-depth cooperation. He looked forward to global experts jointly drawing a blueprint for the future convergence and innovation of Chinese and Western medicine through the seminar.

Uraipan, President of Thai Hua University, spoke on behalf of the seminar participants. She reviewed the more than 20 years of cooperation between her university and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The first TCM undergraduate program in Thailand, jointly established by the two universities, has now trained nearly a thousand talents for the TCM industry in Thailand, significantly enhancing the service capacity of TCM in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

After the opening ceremony, Chen Kaixian, Lin Guoqiang, and Ji Guang respectively delivered keynote speeches focusing on the historical development and the latest research achievements of TCM. With their profound academic background and unique insights, they led the audience to explore the long history and profound theories of TCM, as well as how TCM is contributing to the global health cause in a more scientific, systematic, and precise manner.

During the seminar, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Malaysia's Century University and the Vice President of Mongolia's National Medical University met with university leaders and signed intercollegiate cooperation memorandums. Thai Hua University also signed a new round of joint graduate training agreements with the university's Institute of Innovative Chinese Medicine and the Sino-Thai Natural Medicine Research Institute.

In addition, among the seminar participants, there are no shortage of experts and scholars who have long maintained exchange and cooperative relationships with the university. Professor Charles Savona Ventura from the University of Malta is the director of the "China-Malta" TCM Center. He has been teaching clinical design and research ideas to our university's graduate students for a long time and has actively promoted the spread of TCM in Malta. Dr. Jebbouri Khalil from Morocco has been working alongside the Chinese medical team in Muhamedia, Morocco, for many years. Since 2002, Mezard Marc-Marie, the dean of the Sino-French-Vietnamese Oriental Traditional Medicine College, has been leading students to Shanghai every year to study TCM internal medicine, acupuncture, massage, and Qigong, spreading the "seeds" of TCM to France.

Since its inception in 2017, the project has attracted a total of 756 individuals from 46 countries to Shanghai to experience TCM. Focusing on the theme of "The Inheritance, Innovation, and Medical Charm of TCM," the project aims to promote the application and dissemination of TCM on the international stage through practical activities in cultural exchange, disease prevention and treatment, and talent cultivation.