The inaugural International Academic Conference on “Digital Humanities:Experiences, Challenges, and Prospects” convened at Jin Gu Mansion in Harbinon the morning of June 15th,which wasco-hosted by Institute of the Russian Language ofHeilongjiang University, Center for Russian Language Literature and Culture Studies of Heilongjiang University, the Association of Chinese Teachers of Russian Language and Literature,and “Russian Language Innovation Team Driven by Big Data” of Heilongjiang Leading Talents, alongside Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems Research Institute ofLomonosov Moscow State University, Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences,as well as universities includingPeople’s Friendship University of Russia, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Saint Petersburg State University, Adyghe State University, Voronezh State Pedagogical University, and Yugra State University. The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Sun Chao,the dean of the Institute of the Russian Language ofHeilongjiang University.

Cao Diefeng, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Education, stated in his speech that the conference was held tofollow the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the China-Russia Joint Statement and deepen China-Russia cooperation in the fields of language, big data and exchange of think-tanks and experts through the new blueprint jointly planned by the heads of the two countries.

President Wang Jingbo highlighted in her speech that the symposiumis designed to establish an international academic exchange platform, which is aimed to facilitate in-depth discussion and research innovations among experts and scholars from China and Russia in the field of digital humanities. It will be a great chance to make positive contributions to the academic development of the two countries.

Sergey Ryazansky, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, observed that digitalization is a key trend in the development of countries in the era of globalization, and Chinese scientists are at the forefront of digitalization research. Keeping up with the trends ofmodern scientific research, Heilongjiang University organized and held this symposium.

The conference closely focused on the core theme of “Digital Humanities” and delved deeply into the integrated application of Digital Humanities andArtificialIntelligence in linguistic research, covering frontier fields such asLargeLanguageModels and Internet linguistics. Academician Karabulatova, Professor Huang Ping, Associate Professor Gapaniuk, Professor Sun Ying, Professor Akhremenova, Associate Professor Zu Xueqing, Researcher Xin Na, Professor Bazenova, Professor Li Xiaoguang, and Professor Huang Dongjing chaired the speaking session of the conference respectively.

It is reported that more than 100 Chinese and foreign Russian experts, scholars as well as postgraduate and doctoral students from over 40 universities and scientific research institutions at home and abroad participated in this conference,including the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Novosibirsk State University, Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fudan University,the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the National University of Defense Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Heilongjiang University.