From February 20 to 21, a press corps for a promotion campaign themed “Exploring China: the Origin of Chinese Characters”came to LuoheCity, Henan Province, which is known as “China’s famous Food City”. Numerous cultural landmarks have gained popularity as a result of ongoing efforts to develop traditional cultural resources, including the birthplace of Xu Shen, “saint of philology”and the site of Jiahu.

Xu Shen Cultural Park has scenic attractions including Philology Saint Temple, Chinese Character Avenue, and Chinese Character Origin corridor, featuringHan Dynasty architecture and Chinese character culture. In the park, there are a large number of classics books on XuStudies, dictionaries, character-related cultural relics, as well as steles,rubbings and calligraphyworksand paintingsof all ages.

In the Jiahu Site Museum, which will have a soft opening on May 18, the docents introduced17 examples of symbols found at the site, which contain every component of Chinese characters. The strokes followed basically the same sequence as modern Chinese characters. Therefore, scholars consider these symbols as a kind of primitive script, and probably the origins of Chinese characters.

Since 2019, Luohe has launched a campaign to build a “Leading City of Chinese Character Culture”in an effort to better inherit the cultural heritage of Xu Shen and promote the culture of Chinese characters. Today, Luohe has a strong cultural atmosphere of Chinese characters, and activities such as practicing calligraphy and reading classics have gained traction among the locals.