China's open stage facilitates global cultural exchange boom

BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The rhythm of American tap dance, the swirl of Spanish Flamenco and the songs of a Filipino children's choir recently filled a traditional Cantonese street during an international art parade in south China's Guangdong Province.

Such vibrant scenes are increasingly common across China, as the country opens its doors wider to cultural exchanges.

The street parade in Guangdong was a highlight of the 13th China International Folk Art Festival, which recently concluded. For overseas performers, it offered a chance to experience both China's scenery and its passion for cultural exchange.

"For many of our kids, it's their first time in China. The overwhelming welcome has been touching," said Laurie Haupt, director of Celebrating Arts Dance Ensemble from the United States.

Initiated in 1990, this festival has hosted 173 foreign folk art troupes from 68 countries. "Art brings everyone together -- it blends different cultures," said Kate Caroline Nixon, executive director of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies. "The world needs this power now more than ever."

Parallel to this event, the 2025 Beijing International Week of Intangible Cultural Heritage presented another major platform -- with practitioners from over 60 countries displaying nearly 10,000 items to an audience of 100,000.

Such exchanges are now the norm in China, which has established cultural agreements with more than 150 nations and launched specialized cultural and tourism years with over 30 countries -- in a quest to systematically foster international art dialogue.

Creative integration of tradition and modernity further fuels this conversation. In Jingdezhen, the renowned "porcelain capital" in east China, ancient ceramic culture is being revitalized through innovation and international collaboration.

Since 2015, an international on-site creation program has brought hundreds of artists to Jingdezhen annually. Notably, over 4,000 international artists have now participated in this initiative.

Hyehyeon Kwon, an artist from the Republic of Korea, on her second visit to Jingdezhen, said: "Korea's ceramic tradition developed through exchanges with China. Our histories of ceramic are interconnected."

From handicrafts to cultural relics, platforms encouraging sustained international cultural exchange have steadily grown in China. The international Silk Road alliances for theaters, museums, art festivals, libraries, art galleries and tourist cities have been established. By November 2023, these six alliances had comprised 633 member institutions -- including 407 from abroad.

Thanks to these regular exchange mechanisms, cross-civilization dialogue is flourishing.

In Shenzhen, a city in south China, crowds admired artifacts from Peru's Incan civilization, while artifacts from China's ancient Shu civilization were displayed in Peru. Dialogue activities have also been carried out between the prehistoric Liangzhu Archaeological Ruins in east China and world heritage sites like Britain's Stonehenge.

"We proactively promote dialogue and expand our global circle of friends," said Sun Yeli, China's minister of culture and tourism.

This spirit was echoed at the recent second World Conference on China Studies in Shanghai -- where hundreds of global scholars discussed China with focus on its "openness," "mutual learning" and "inclusiveness."

"Contemporary China is deeply rooted in its profound civilization, which still holds inspiration for global challenges today," said German sinologist Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer at the conference.

"China will, as always, build a bridge for dialogue among world civilizations and continue to inject impetus into the progress of human civilization," said Chen Shaofeng, a cultural scholar at Peking University. ■