Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was among the attentive visitors at the opening ceremony of the cultural week. "I've known Confucius' thinking for 40 or 50 years," he told Xinhua proudly.

Raffarin said Confucianism places emphasis on harmony and balance, but "there are some important philosophers who have ignored the significance of Confucian thought."

Just as Bandarin said, one core thought of Confucianism agrees with UNESCO's principle that different races, cultures and religions could live in harmony and peace if the world adopts more comprehensiveness.

Fu Jing/China Daily

The week-long event in France also includes an award ceremony of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy on Wednesday to mark contributions made by the Nepali Non-Formal Education Center and the Egyptian Governorate of Ismailia.

Meanwhile, an international forum in Confucius' hometown Qufu, in China's eastern Shangdong province, will gather representatives and researchers to exchange their viewpoints on Confucianism, Chinese delegate Zhang Shuping said.

"Though his simple philosophy is over a thousand years old and very Chinese, the base is still relevant to modern society, so in this sense, it is valuable," Clerer Clare, a UNESCO clerk who visited the exhibition, said.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Wen Yi