On the morning of April 30, 2022, the ceremony to get online “the Digital Platform for Historical Materials ” was held at Xilin Gol Vocational College(XGVC). The ceremony was chaired by Wu Xichun, member of the CPC Committee and vice president of XGVC. Cholmong, secretary of the CPC Committee of XGVC, Tubxin, deputy secretary of the CPC Committee of XGVC and directors of the departments of XGVC concerned attended the ceremony. Altogether over 40 participants were present at the ceremony. They include Prof. Nasunurtu, director of Northeast Asian Language Resources Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(NALRCIMAR), Suyaltu, director of the Office of the Collection and Research of Ancient Books of Minorities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(OCRABMIMAR), Bayin Bater, distinguished professor of the center, Prof. Oyungerel of IMU and doctor Hongying.

Platform launching

On January 15, 2021, NALRCIMAR and XGVC signed the cooperation agreement and co-researched and developed the platform of “The Digital Platform for Historical Materials”. The materials collected by the platform are the rare and valuable materials about the history and humanities of the “Belt and Road” countries and regions in Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian, Urdu, Turkish, Mongolian, German and Korean. The materials on the platform involve over 6300 works and more than 6000 sheets of manuscripts and over 1.33 million pictures in over 50 languages from over 60 countries which include such materials as historical materials in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, 78 editions of the Travels of Marco Polo and Yuan Liaofan’s Mongolian edition of Historical Mirror to Aid in Government in 1573.

Launching ceremony

At the ceremony, Prof. Nasunurtu, Tubxin, deputy secretary of XGVC CPC Committee and Suyaltu, director of OCRABMIMAR, addressed the ceremony successively. Nasunurtu said that when he inspected IMU on July 16, 2019, President Xi Jinping pointed out that “further efforts should be made to collect, sort out and protect the ancient books in Mongolian to tap and carry forward the connotations about progressive ethnic unity in the books and encourage people of all ethnic groups to be united and strive for common prosperity”. Nasunurtu also said that premier Li Keqiang proposed in his government work report of 2022 the important task to “hand down and carry forward the excellent Chinese traditional culture, strengthen the protection and use of cultural relics and ancient books and the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and promote the construction of the national cultural parks”. On April 25, 2022, when he inspected Renmin University of China, President Xi mentioned and emphasized again the significance of the protection and use of ancient books. Nasunurtu pointed out that what president Xi and premier Li said fully shows that the protection and inheritance of ancient books are the important part and manifestation of forging the consciousness of the Chinese nation's community. The platform will provide rich and detailed academic resources for researchers and teachers who study the history of the exchanges, communications and integration of the Chinese nation. Besides, the platform can supply convenient and real-time inquiry service.

Suyaltu, director of OCRABMIMAR said that the CPC Central Committee has always attached great importance to sorting out and protecting ancient books. In 1981, the State Council issued the document about sorting out the ancient books. In 2007, the CPC Central Committee issued the document about strengthening work on ancient books. On April 11, 2022, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued the notice about advancing the work for ancient books in a new era. Suylatu said that the digitalization of the ancient books and literature has promoted the work in rescuing, protecting, sorting out, studying, printing and using ancient books and played a very good role of reference. The platform is leading in the aspect and needed by the times.

Tubxin, deputy secretary of XGVC CPC Committee, introduced what the college had done for the ethnic unity and progress and said that the college would make unremitting efforts to forge the consciousness of Chinese nation’s community while the college is committed to protecting and sorting out the valuable historical documents of the Chinese nation.

After the ceremony, the attendees visited such special collections as “Dazheng Collection of Border Realted Books” and “Grassland Cultural Corridor on the Silk Road”.

Book Collection visiting