A group of scholars discuss the cultural exchanges that have taken place in Beijing over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Applying Ames' comparative philosophy method, he thinks that people should look at the cultural roots of each other when trying to understand another culture as well as frequent frictions.

Yang Xusheng, the director of the Center for World Religious and Global Ethics at Peking University, says Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) was an iconic figure in the eyes of the French enlightenment thinkers during the 18th century, though there was a cultural misreading.

Yang, in the 1990s, studied with Hans Kung, or Kong Hansi in Chinese, a Swiss philosopher and theologian, who is focused on diverse religious traditions and seeking a consent that can be considered as a basic value for human beings today and in the future.

According to Yang, Kung found the appropriate expression of the value in Confucianism.

And Yang says spiritual and cultural exchanges are essential in the future and require open dialogue and mutual learning.

Michele Ferrero, an Italian Latinist at BFSU, not only teaches Latin, but also takes his students to some churches in Beijing to help them gain a more comprehensive picture of Latin culture.

Every summer, he also takes students to visit Rome.