Speech delivered by Gao Anming, vice president and editor-in-chief of China International Communications Group (CICG), at the opening ceremony of 2021 China Today Arts Week 

(November 8, 2021, BEIJING) 

　　Your Excellency Leonardo Kam, Ambassador of the Republic of Panama to China 

　　Mr. Zhang Yanbin, member of the Executive Board of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles 

　　Mr. Qiu Xiaoqi, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Latin American Affairs and Vice-president of China Public Diplomacy Association 

　　Ladies and gentlemen 

　　Good afternoon 

　　I’m very happy to be here together with our distinguished guests, to witness the opening of the 2021 China Today Arts Week and the premiere of Youth in Light and Shadow: Selected Chinese Short Films Panorama. On behalf of the China International Communications Group (CICG), one of the co-organizers of the event, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all of our guests and media friends. 

　　China is a country with a long history and splendid civilization. It is the goal of the China Today Arts Week to make the brilliant Chinese culture accessible to more people in the world and strengthen cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. The annual China Today Arts Week has been held for more than a decade. This year, we are greatly honored to join hands with the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) as one of the organizers of the cultural exchange event. Covering a wide range of art forms, the art week gathers a multitude of excellent art works through exhibitions of films, decorative patterns of folk kiln ceramics, photos, fine arts, calligraphy works of poems, and documentaries about Chinese cities. Our online exhibition halls will make the profound and rich ancient Chinese culture accessible to all. 

　　Literature and arts reflect a nation’s ethos, which requires both diligent inheritance and daring innovation to keep pace with the times. Here I would like to take the chance of this arts week to share some of my views about cultural exchanges: 

　　First, mutual respect should be adhered to in promoting exchanges of literature and arts among different countries. Despite the differences in forms, literature and art works of different cultures are the quintessence of their creators’ value and wisdom, and are the shared wealth of humankind. To understand the true essence of different literary and art works, a modest attitude that values equality should be upheld, and dialogues among different cultures and across different literary and art genres should be strengthened, thus promoting mutual learning.  

　　Second, openness and inclusiveness should be upheld in promoting exchanges of literature and arts among different countries and mutual learning. Exchanges and mutual learning are the impetus for the innovative development of literature and arts and can help maintain a nation’s cultural vitality. Since the beginning of 2020, Chinese people and peoples in the rest of the world have shown their solidarity in their joint efforts to contain the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, we have built and nurtured favorable online exchange platforms to spark literature and art aficionados’ passion for cross-border exchanges, thus a literary and art exchange pattern with both online and offline activities was formed.  

　　Third, more bridges connecting peoples of different countries should be built to encourage dialogues on literature and art, thus expanding literary and art exchanges between China and the rest of the world. Exchanges and dialogues can only be achieved by means of bilateral and multilateral activities, which are intended to promote mutual understanding and learning. For that, CFLAC has provided excellent platforms and resources. CICG, since its establishment in 1949, the same year when new China was founded, has been devoted to promoting cultural exchanges and communications between China and the rest of the word, to which China Today has contributed great efforts. CICG would like to strengthen its cooperation with CFLAC and literary and art institutions of different countries to advance cultural exchanges by bringing their advantages into full play.  

　　As one of the country’s major pillars in international communication and publishing, CICG’s operations cover the six fields of high-end foreign-oriented publicity services, foreign-language book publication and distribution, international communications by means of media publishing, international people-to-people exchanges, as well as research and consultation related to foreign-oriented publicity. CICG annually produces around 4,000 book titles in more than 40 languages, and publishes 36 periodicals in 14 languages, which are distributed in 180-plus countries and regions. With online platforms, its audiences and readers can be found across the globe. In the past several years in particular, to enhance more exchanges and understanding among different cultures, we have organized a number of influential activities such as seminar on global governance, dialogues among civilizations, cultural exchange activities, youth forum, as well as competitions of calligraphy, cartoons, and short videos. CICG has been keen to promote more exchanges among think tanks, media organizations, and the youth.  

　　Founded by the late Honorary President of the PRC Soong Ching Ling (Mme. Sun Yat-sen) in 1952, China Today is published in eight languages and distributed in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. China Today seeks to present a real and multi-dimensional China through objective Chinese stories and carry out cultural exchanges in an all-round way. 

　　Dear friends, even mountains and seas cannot keep apart people with common aspirations. CICG will continue to bring its advantage in multilingual and multi-platform communication into full play. We will further strengthen communications with friends from around the world and boost people-to-people exchanges. We look forward to building more bridges for mutual respect and learning of different civilizations and setting up long-term mechanisms for people-to-people exchanges, to make more contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. 

　　In the end, I wish the 2021 China Today Arts Week a complete success!  

　　Thank you all!