The Macau Ricci Institute’s Symposium for 2022 aims to draw business people, scholars and key opinion leaders together to discuss the economic, social and ecological challenges of dealing with China in the context of the disruption by the pandemic COVID-19.

Inspired by the dialogue with China initiated by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and generations of missionaries who over the last centuries took deep roots in China and became friends with the Chinese, the Symposium explores different dimensions of a demanding dialogue with China.

The purpose of the Symposium aims to analyze the multiple disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as a unique opportunity to question preconceived ideas about China and achieve collective efforts to develop a genuine dialogue with China in midst of a dominant climate of mutual suspicion, conflicts and corruption.

The main focus of the dialogue is in the following areas of the past, present and the future in midst of the disruption of the pandemic:

1) Social Innovation

Missionaries brought significant social innovation to China in their sharing of hard sciences such as mathematics, geometrics, astronomy, medicine while a new door to the language and culture of China was opened to the Western world.

• a) Has the COVID disruption helped strengthen or weakened the dialogue with the Chinese culture and contributing in social innovation?
• b) What are the characteristics, chances and risks of social innovation within the Belt-and-Road Initiative of the Chinese government in the context of the pandemic?
• c) How can China and its partners lead a “green revolution” breaking away from an exclusive focus on profit maximization and the exploitation of fossil fuel resources at any cost to a genuine sustainable development?
• d) Has the COVID disruption and the recent revelations of the Pandora papers helped strengthen the case for transparency and accountability?

2) Moral Leadership

Moral leadership has been shaped all over Asia by different wisdom traditions with a focus of Confucian Ethics as well as by wisdom traditions and religions from West especially the Bible .

• a) How can key elements of Confucian Ethics highlighted in the figure of the “Junzi” “君子” the exemplary leaders inspire a new inclusive leadership as a result of experiences during the pandemic?
• b) How can “Confucian Entrepreneurship” and key stories of the Bible shape a new economic paradigm oriented to the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity when the gap between the rich and poor seems ever more widening?
• c) How may the more intensive government posture on regulation be welcomed, under what circumstances? Is it a reflection of changes in China's economy provoked in part by the COVID crisis?

3) Comparative Spirituality

Wisdom traditions and religions from East and West have fostered an approach to faith which is based on reason.

• a) In midst of growing regional conflicts and the COVID disruption how can wisdom traditions and religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Confucianism play a positive role in reconciliation and dialogue instead of fostering further division?
• b) How can the special agreement between China and the Vatican renewed in October 2020 on a temporary basis become a showcase of a constructive partnership between state and religion despite lingering issues of mutual suspicion and resentment?
• c) What are religious organizations inspired by the great wisdom traditions doing to alleviate the suffering from COVID? How has COVID disrupted religious services in all traditions?
• d) Has the COVID inspired shift toward digitalization, increased use of social media, conducting religious services online been a good thing and will it be retained once the COVID crisis is past, or is it something to be discouraged as religiously counter-productive pastorally?
• e) Have these trends in religious organizations also been reported in China?
• f) How are Chinese religious organizations coping with the COVID crisis?

Brief for Submissions

With this call for papers we invite submissions that bring together theory and practice, research studies and case-based papers that could inform and illustrate different forms of dialogue with China. We welcome empirical studies that explore communities and practices of dialogue with China and well-developed conceptual papers. Empirical studies should be supported by rigorous qualitative or quantitative data analysis. Conceptual work should be clearly grounded in the existing literature. Practitioner papers are welcomed to contribute to our understanding of effective teaching and learning, through research, reports and case studies that address any of the questions suggested here, or others that they believe should be addressed.

Submitted papers should have the potential to make a significant contribution both to action oriented educational and academic literature and provide specific recommendations for practical actions by governments. Accepted papers for the Symposium will be considered for publication in the issue number 11 of the Macau Ricci Institute Journal.

Submission Dates

Please submit papers or an abstract of 500-700 words for consideration to Mr. Brian Chao, at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., by 15 February 2022. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by 27 April 2022, and at that time will be given a “Style Sheet” with instructions, on the length of the paper, formatting, the use of APA guidelines, and other technical details. The deadline for final papers is 31 July 2022.

Steering Committee

Parissa Haghirian

Dennis McCann

Stephan Rothlin

Felipe Bacalso

Jenny Lao-Philips

Academic Advisory Committee

Alvaro Barbosa

Franz Gassner

Ansoumane Douty Diakite

Alexandre Lobo

6 October 2021