"Western scholars often applied Mesopotamian paradigms to ancient Egyptian cities and questioned whether Egyptian cities even existed," Li recalls of her doctoral research. "Drawing on Chinese historical experiences — Bronze Age cities as political hubs rather than purely economic centers — we found fresh comparative angles that intrigued Western colleagues."

　　Her American adviser, fascinated by this cross-civilizational approach, frequently asked about Chinese archaeology. "We discussed how the motif of a person looking through a doorway appears in both Egyptian funerary art and Chinese tomb paintings from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220)," Li says. "It suggests the universal symbolic significance of thresholds."

　　"Our edge lies in the indigenous academic tradition — analytical methods refined through rigorous training, deliberation and empirical testing," says Zhang Youran, a center lecturer.

Egyptology was included in the 2024 funding list of the Chinese Academy of History's support program for endangered scholarly disciplines. CHINA DAILY

　　From texts onward

　　The center's emblem — a pyramid flanked by a bird and a papyrus scroll — symbolizes its mission to explore ancient Egyptian wisdom through systematic documentation and translation.

　　To date, the center has published two translated volumes of economic and legal documents from Egypt's New Kingdom period, with a third underway. In December 2025, it launched Egyptology Studies, the first Chinese collection of academic papers dedicated exclusively to the field.