Trans-cultural Sharing: A Case Study of Community Life-World Based on Collaborative Group Filming Work of Visual Anthropologists from China and Cameroon

　　The background and significance of the project

　　In September 2015, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the General Debate of the 70th United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, pointing out: "In today's world, countries are interdependent and share common weal and woe. We should inherit and carry forward the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, build a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core, and build a community of human destiny. Human beings live in the same global village. The degree of interconnection, interdependence, cooperation and mutual promotion among countries is unprecedented deepening. The international community has increasingly become a community of destiny in which you have mine and I have yours. On October 18, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his report to the Nineteenth National Congress that we call on all peoples to work together to build a community of human destiny and a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, cleanliness and beauty. We should respect the diversity of world civilizations, transcend the barriers between civilizations through civilization exchanges, transcend the conflicts of civilizations through mutual learning, and transcend the superiority of civilizations through the coexistence of civilizations.

　　Anthropology takes human beings as its research object and takes the construction of the unity of human diversity as its disciplinary mission. As an anthropological branch with film as its main body, visual anthropology pays attention to the study of life-world in cross-cultural context, and takes film shooting and communication as the media to construct the field of interaction and understanding between people of different cultural backgrounds.

　　Bao Jiang, the head of the Chinese side of the project, is one of the first generation of Chinese scholars trained in visual anthropology. Since 1999, he has entered visual anthropology, and has been working in this field for 19 years, with rich academic accumulation. Bao Jiang has been active in the international visual anthropology for a long time and he was elected as Chairman of Commission on Visual Anthropology,IUAES in 2018. Mouadjamou Ahmadou, head of the Cameroonian side, is the leading visual anthropologist in University of Maroua, and he is a member of CVA, IUAES. Cameroon's visual anthropology is the most active force in Africa at present.

　　The establishment and implementation of this project will lay the foundation for the cooperation between China and Cameroon in visual anthropology, and also lay the methodological foundation for the cooperation between China and other countries in visual anthropology. The construction of human destiny community urgently needs multi-disciplinary basic research as academic support. The significance of the project establishment and implementation is to support the construction of human destiny community with specific academic practice in the field of visual anthropology.

　　Objectives and framework and Methods of the project

　　1. China-Cameroon Visual Anthropology Workshop in Beijing will be held in Beijing in 2019. The contents of the conference include: the exhibition and discussion of excellent works of Visual anthropology from the two countries; the preparatory meeting of China-Cameroon Visual Anthropology Workshop in Maroua. Through the self-academic introduction of scholars, the introduction of alternative fields and topics discussion, film teams of trans-cultural sharing of China-Cameroon Visual Anthropology Workshop in Maroua will be established. Each team is composed of scholars from both countries.

　　2.  China-Cameroon Visual Anthropology Workshop in Maroua will be held in Marua in 2020. It includes 3 days of seminars and 12 days of filmmaking and community sharing.

　　3. Trans-cultural Sharing：A Case Study of Community Life-World Based on Collaborative Group Filming Work of Visual Anthropologists from China and Cameroon is the core theme of this project, which runs through the two workshops, involving close collaboration among Chinese visual anthropologists, Cameroonian visual anthropologists and film protagonists. This project proposes the concept of "tans-cultural sharing", which combines the concept of "shared anthropology" proposed by French visual anthropologist Jean Rouch and the concept of "trans-cultural cinema" proposed by Australian visual anthropologist David McDougall. The aim of proposing the concept of "tans-cultural sharing" is further deepening the practical reason principle of visual anthropology.

　　4. After the project is set up, Bao Jiang and Muadjamou Ahmadou, the project leaders of China and Cameroon, will further communicate and choose a community in Cameroon as the project object as well as discuss possible approaches to community life-world study such as cultural heritage, kinship, local elite, globalization, state and so on.

　　5. Visual anthropological methods such as participant observation, interview, collaborative film-making, reflection, etc. will be applied in the project.