Recently, the Forum of Humanities Communication in Digital Space: Harmony and Mutual Learning was held virtually. The Forum was a sub-forum of the fourth China-France-Africa Tripartite Forum on Higher Education, and it was jointly organized by Wuhan University andÉcole Nationale des Chartes.

The Forum attracted more than 300 Chinese and French experts from Renmin University of China, Sun Yat-sen University, Paris Sciences & Lettres-PSL University, Paris Institute of Political Studies and other universities, as well as cultural heritage institutions such as the Palace Museum and Dunhuang Academy. Experts from China and France discussed humanities communication and cultural heritage in digital space, paid attention to the protection, restoration, research and dissemination of cultural heritage by digital tools, and injected vitality into the high-quality cultural exchange between China and France in the digital age.

Michelle Bubenicek, President of École Nationale des Chartes, said "The cooperation between the École Nationale des Chartes and Wuhan University has a long history and a deep foundation, and the COVID-19 can't block the cultural exchanges between China and France."

Wei Lu, Dean of the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, expressed sincere gratitude to the French experts, saying that this cooperation came into being at the right time, and called on Chinese and French experts to unite and support each other, to work together to promote the development of cultural heritage protection in the whole world and practice the concept of A Community of Shared Future for Mankind.

The keynote report session was presided over byYujue Wang, Professor, Director of Sino-French Humanities Exchange Research Center of Wuhan University, and Researcher of the Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage Laboratory of Wuhan University. Chinese and French scholars presented the latest research achievements in the field of digital humanities, and had extensive interactive discussions with the participants.

Mingjie Li, Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, showed the application of digital humanities in the fields of ancient books research, ancient books collation and ancient books promotion, and pointed out that the digital humanities technology should focus on the field of ancient books collation to increase the value-added utilization of traditional ancient books collation results.

Emmanuelle Bermès, Senior Lecturer at the École Nationale des Chartes, analyzed the challenges faced by artificial intelligence in libraries, archives and museums deeply, and introduced the cutting-edge application of artificial intelligence technology in multiple fields such as image and character recognition through several French digital projects.

Shaohua Wang, Associate Professor at the School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, pays close attention to the research and practice of field archaeological digitalization, and introduced the relevant policies and work details of archaeological digitalization, covering spatial surveying and mapping technology, archaeological data collection, cultural relics protection and restoration, etc.

Five Chinese and French scholars present their research results.

Chahan Vidal-Gorène, Researcher at the Jean-Mabillon Center ofÉcole Nationale des Chartes,introduced a brand new calculation method combining endangered manuscripts with artificial intelligence, and explained the specific application of artificial intelligence technologies such as Generative Adversial Network (GAN) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) in the field of endangered manuscripts with the cases of Chinese ancient characters recognition, Armenian manuscript heritage restoration and manuscript coloring, and etc.

Stéphanie Louis, Engineer of the Jean-Mabillon Center ofÉcole Nationale des Chartes,started from two aspects: exhibition and the use of digital tools, and combined with the digital curatorial cases of France and Austria, explored the feasible scheme of using digital tools to create exhibition history.

Xiaoguang Wang, Professor, Director of the Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage Laboratory, Wuhan University, reviewed the grand occasion of Sino-French academic exchanges in Overseas Academic Week of Wuhan University, affirmed the significance of the integration of humanism and digital technology in digital virtual space and actual physical space, and expressed sincere thanks to the guests from both China and France.

Cultural heritage cooperation has always been one of the most active highlights in the cultural relations between China and France. Wuhan University has been cooperating with École Nationale des Chartes for a long time. In 2021, the Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage Laboratory, Wuhan University, was in the pilot construction list of the first batch of Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory of the Ministry of Education. In 2022, the Digital Culture and Heritage Research Center was established with the support of the French Embassy in China.