On the morning of the 11^th of November, the Fifth World Sinology Conference was convened at RUC, jointly hosted by the Confucius Institute headquarters, the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL), and Renmin University. Close to 100 scholars from China and abroad gathered together for the event, and actively participated in academic dialogue on the topic of “Sinologies in Comparative Context: Tradition and Innovation.” RUC Chairwoman JIN Nuo, Deputy Director of the NOTCFL JING Wei and Chair of the Office of Sino-Japan-Korean Cooperation YANG Houlan attended the opening ceremony. The ceremony was also attended by academics and specialists representing universities from all over China, and from all over the world. Chairwoman JIN delivered a speech as part of the opening ceremony, during which she noted that the World Sinology Conference started in 2007, from which time it has continued to develop and improve, being so well received that it is now in its fifth session. She continued, saying that the last session was held in 2014, during which they established the World Sinology Conference board of directors. Every World Sinology Conference is held at RUC, serving to facilitate exchanges between Sinologists from around the world, creating a platform for academic exchange. The World Sinology Conference closely follows global trends, displays the current global developments in Sinology, and puts every strength towards facilitating and expanding opportunities for Sinologists to interact, so as to make a significant contribution in bringing Chinese culture to the world. Chairwoman JIN expressed the fact that the proceedings of each conference serve not only to elucidate the China of the past, but also that of the present. She concluded by stating that this session brings to light the many possibilities for exploring Sinology against a backdrop of multicultural exchange, and expressed hope that it would help scholars come together and use academic interests to build friendships, to use academic pursuit to link the past and the present, the ideal and the practical, China and the world, and make new and important contributions to the field of Sinology. Following, Deputy Director JING addressed the conference, stating that against the backdrop of global development, the destiny of humanity had become inextricably intertwined, that we are faced with a great challenge when it comes to facilitating cultural exchanges between nations, and in bringing together people of different nations and academic backgrounds to help solve the common problems facing us. The Confucius Institute and the “Confucius China Studies Program” established by the NOTCFL are just some of the means taken to help address these issues, by creating a platform to encourage young academics from around the world to collaborate and share ideas. The subject of this session of the World Sinology Conference is “Sinologies in Comparative Context: Tradition and Innovation,” creating a space for academics and specialists to exchange ideas, utilising their own unique cultural background to provide a unique perspective on China, carrying on and developing the wisdom and learning of this millennia old cultural tradition. The opening ceremony was presided over by Vice President YI Zhihong. RUC Professor YANG Huilin shares his views on the conference topic. This session was attended by over 40 international academics, over 30 PhD students on the “Confucius China Studies Program,” and more than 40 academics from Greater China, who came together to engage in academic discussion. On the advice of the board of directors, this session was intentionally made smaller than the previous event, so as to make it more intimate, with more focussed topics, so as to improve the quality of the discussions. The fifth session of the World Sinology Conference purposefully chose to use the plural form of the word “Sinologies,” to make a point that Sinology is a diverse topic. In this light, this session was of a different format, featuring direct dialogues between local and international academics. In the two days, many one on one discussions were held on such topics as “Sinology and China”; “Sinology and Western Learning”; “A Centennial Review of Sinology Journals”; and “The Quarrel Between Ancient and Modern Sinology Paradigms.”   (“Sinology and China” group discussion) (“Sinology and Western Learning” group discussion) (“A Centennial Review of Sinology Journals” group discussion) (“The Quarrel Between Ancient and Modern Sinology Paradigms” group discussion)   During the two days of the conference there were also held two fora on special topics, one of which was a forum for the young academics on the “Confucius China Studies Program”; the other was on the topic of compiling a dictionary of characters shared in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, called the “Trilateral Common Vocabulary Dictionary Compilation” forum. (“Confucius China Studies Program” forum) (“Trilateral Common Vocabulary Dictionary Compilation” forum)   As indicated by the attendees, the prominent feature of Sinology is that it is a cross-cultural, multi-lingual and interdisciplinary branch of learning. Sinology is not only a natural vehicle for cultural dialogue, it simultaneously promotes reflection on self-cultivation, and makes use of the interchange between different modes of thought to promote the coming together of people and knowledge. World Sinology is devoted to crossing over and breaking down traditional cultural barriers, promoting global dialogue in order to facilitate understanding, using understanding to promote mutual respect, and using mutual respect to promote harmony – in this it recognises the potential for Sinology to contribute to furthering exchanges between East and West. The World Sinology Conference has held four successful sessions since 2007, on the topics of “Dialogue Between Civilisations and a Harmonious World,” “Sinology and Cross-Cultural Exchange,” “Sinology and the Modern World”, and “The Exchange of Learning between ‘East’ and ‘West’: 400 Years in Retrospect.” All previous sessions have discerned and guided the trends in the development of Sinology, extending the influence of Sinological academic research, and creating an important platform for exchange between Sinologists around the world.