On June 7, 2018, Professor Romuald Normand of University of Strasbourg, France delivered a lecture entitled “The Essence of French Culture --- Tradition and Modernity” for IICE’s International Education Podium. The lecture was attended by faculty members and graduate students from the IICE.

Prof. Normand began his lecture by briefing the cultural origin of French culture. He noted that in the course of historical progress, influenced by ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, thoughts and arts, France gradually formed its own culture and spirit of special characteristics. He used Art of Midwifery by Socrates and the Pythagorean theorem as examples to illustrate how French culture incorporated the elements of logic, mathematics, dialectics and rule of law from the ancient Greek and Roman thoughts.

Then Prof. Normand systematically analyzed the evolution and change of French language in its course of modernity. He argued that French is a fundamental manifestation of French culture, and French culture in the time of Medieval was the center of European culture and produced tremendous splendid cultural legacies. However, Prof. Normand also noted that in the globalized era today, the use and distribution of French language faces challenges such as the striking impact on the language itself caused by the variation of language habitus of French in different French-speaking regions in the world.
 

Later, Prof. Normand shared his insights into the similarities and differences in symbolism between French and Chinese in various aspects of the two cultures such as movie, literature, arts, fashion, and foods.

Finally, Prof. Normand discussed with the audience the difference in the attitude towards modernity of urban and rural areas in France and the purity issues of French in Quebec, Canada.