"All academic journals aim to provide platforms for exchange," says Zhang, who also serves as the publication's executive editor. "This allows us to gather research while helping international colleagues better engage with Chinese scholarship."

　　These efforts also extend into digital terrain. The center is developing tools including a hieroglyphic database, an ancient Egyptian geographical information system, and optical character recognition software for hieroglyphic texts.

　　"Chinese teams only began fieldwork in 2018, much later than Western counterparts," Guo notes. "Creating comprehensive Chinese-language documentary resources is therefore critically important."

　　Zhang emphasizes the potential of digital humanities to give Chinese Egyptology a distinctive advantage. "While we may lag behind Western institutions in traditional archaeological fieldwork, we have opportunities to lead in digital transformation," she says.

　　"Breakthroughs in database construction, hieroglyphic recognition, and AI-assisted analysis can secure us a greater voice in global academic discourse," she adds.

　　Building scholarly talent

　　Egyptology in China qualifies as juexue, a niche or obscure discipline, because of its high entry barriers, extensive linguistic requirements, and prolonged training cycles. Yet, the center has made talent cultivation its central pillar.

　　It currently has six full-time researchers, four doctoral candidates, and over 10 master's program students. Nine doctoral graduates have taken positions at universities across China. Through national scholarships, several young scholars have also been sent to leading institutions including Yale, Johns Hopkins and the University of Munich.