China News Service, Jiangmen, November 7 (Reporter Guo Jun) "Overseas Chinese Prosperity in South Guangdong - 2026 Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Intellectual Development Conference and Jinan University Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute Work Promotion Meeting" was held on the 7th in Chikan Overseas Chinese Ancient Town, Kaiping, Jiangmen, Guangdong. This conference focused on the contemporary issue of two-way empowerment of the new generation of Chinese Americans and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It brought together nearly 90 representatives from universities, scientific research institutions, and overseas-related departments inside and outside the province to discuss ways to unite the hearts and minds of overseas Chinese and serve high-quality development.
"Overseas Chinese Prospering South Guangdong - 2026 Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Intellectual Development Conference and Jinan University Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute Work Promotion Meeting" was held in Jiangmen, Guangdong on the 7th. Photo provided by the organizer
The conference is hosted by the United Front Work Department of the Jiangmen Municipal Party Committee, the Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Culture in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Inheritance and Communication of Jinan University, and hosted by the Jiangmen Wuyi Overseas Friendship Association and the Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute of Jinan University. The event focused on topics such as attracting overseas Chinese to the Bay Area to gather intelligence under the global talent competition landscape, entrepreneurship and development of the new generation of Chinese Americans, identity and cross-cultural adaptation, innovation of overseas Chinese-related policies, and long-term mechanisms for cultivating the national identity of the new generation of Chinese Americans. It also simultaneously promoted the research and construction of think tanks at the Institute of Overseas Chinese Culture of Jinan University.
Jiangmen is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in China. More than 5.3 million overseas Chinese from Jiangmen and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan live in 145 countries and regions around the world. It has the "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" world cultural heritage and the "Overseas Chinese Archives" world memory heritage. It is the only city in Guangdong that has two overseas Chinese cultural world heritage sites. Jiangmen is also the birthplace of national overseas Chinese publications and hometown news. There are 81 types of overseas Chinese publications and 28 century-old overseas Chinese magazines.
Liang Hongwu, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangmen Municipal Party Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, introduced in his opening speech that since Jiangmen and Jinan University jointly established the Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute in 2024, both parties have continued to amplify the unique overlapping advantages of "overseas Chinese capital + overseas Chinese school" and continue to make efforts in platform building, overseas Chinese culture research, and achievement transformation. She hopes that the institute will continue to deepen campus-local collaboration, produce more valuable research results, and attract overseas Chinese investment and intelligence to take root in the Bay Area.
Xia Quan, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Jinan University, said that Jinan University has a deep relationship with Jiangmen, and the Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute is located in the ancient town of Chikan, which is an important carrier for the university to deepen the research on overseas Chinese affairs. He put forward three initiatives to promote the conference to become a bridgehead for overseas Chinese wisdom to flow into the Bay Area, the institute to become a think tank for decision-making consultation on overseas Chinese affairs, and overseas Chinese culture to become a golden business card for telling Chinese stories.
Li Minghuan, director of the Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute of Jinan University, gave a report on the work of the institute. According to reports, the institute is based on the national overseas Chinese affairs work layout, focusing on building an alliance of overseas Chinese think tanks and cultivating the root identity of the new generation of Chinese. A total of 30 projects have been approved in two batches of tenders, and it has been approved as a key research base for humanities and social sciences in general universities in Guangdong Province. In the next step, the institute will focus on deepening campus-local collaboration, building a strong think tank alliance, deepening academic research on overseas Chinese culture, and coordinating talent training and cultural dissemination.
Wu Xiaosheng, a second-level inspector of the United Front Work Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, delivered a speech, saying that Guangdong will continue to do a good job in promoting overseas Chinese in the new era. This year, it will create an overseas Chinese work brand of "Overseas Chinese Prosperize Southern Guangdong" and promote the use of overseas Chinese to promote trade, attract investment and attract intelligence through overseas Chinese. Jiangmen digs deep into the history and cultural context of overseas Chinese, activates the remains of overseas Chinese hometowns, and has distinctive features in overseas Chinese affairs work. He hopes that all localities will continue to provide ideological guidance for the new generation of Chinese Americans, promote the implementation and transformation of overseas Chinese intellectual research results, improve the collaborative linkage mechanism, and continuously polish the brand of "Overseas Chinese Prosperity in Southern Guangdong".
In the keynote speech session, experts from academia, media, and overseas Chinese-related research institutions shared their views on the development of the return of the new generation of Chinese Americans, the construction of a database of overseas Chinese scholars, the exploration of the skilled immigration system in the Greater Bay Area, medical protection for overseas Chinese, the transformation of overseas Chinese journals and rural news, the dissemination of overseas Chinese batch culture, and the upgrade of the "introducing intelligence through overseas Chinese" model. They discussed the path for the new generation of Chinese Americans to move from root identity to development embedding.
The conference set up two group discussions, "Research on the Chinese Cultural Identity of the New Generation of Overseas Chinese" and "Talent Training in the Bay Area and Cultural Construction of Overseas Chinese Hometowns." More than 20 experts and scholars conducted exchanges focusing on topics such as Chinese language education in Southeast Asia, the intergenerational inheritance of overseas Chinese communities, the protection of the cultural context of overseas Chinese hometowns, and overseas Chinese criticism of home and country narratives.
At the closing ceremony, Cheng Guofu, director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for the Inheritance and Communication of Chinese Culture in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas at Jinan University, concluded that this seminar has shown four major shifts: cultural inheritance has shifted from static protection to dynamic co-creation, identity cultivation has shifted from emotional root-seeking to development and rooting, research methods have shifted from experiential narrative to empirical research, and research horizons have expanded from the perspective of a single hometown of overseas Chinese to the overall Chinese nation community. He revealed that the follow-up efforts will be to promote the transformation of the conference results into advice for the government, continue to carry out bidding on overseas Chinese cultural projects, accelerate the construction of the World Overseas Chinese Think Tank Alliance, and promote the normalization and branding of the Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Intellectual Development Conference.
