Where ancient meets modern

Africans are impressed by China's high-tech methods for presenting traditional culture

When Benin fashion designer Sonia Damala attended a digital exhibition of frescoes from the Mogao Grottoes presented at Artron Art Center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, she was highly impressed by the experience.

The use of virtual reality in the show greatly enhanced her enjoyment.

While Damala and many other people from Africa have already had some exposure to Chinese culture, they can now learn more through the One Thousand People Plan, a Chinese government project that aims to train Africans involved in various aspects of culture.

"I am thoroughly excited," Damala says during her visit to Shenzhen earlier this month. "It is great to use such high-tech while presenting an exhibition on traditional culture."

Such shows will encourage Africans to adopt better methods for presenting their own cultures, she adds.

Damala was among 30 delegates from 10 French-speaking African countries who came to Shenzhen on Dec 4 for a week-long training program on cultural creativity.

It was part of a three-year Chinese Ministry of Culture project to help African countries train 1,000 people by the end of 2018.

President Xi Jinping proposed the plan at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in December last year.

During the Shenzhen exhibition, delegates visited the country's leading cultural enterprises in the city, including internet giant Tencent Holdings, art printer and database provider Artron and top animation company Huaqiang. They also attended lectures and events.

"We have seen that many abandoned factories have been turned into art zones," says Adama Diallo, an exhibition curator and art agent from Senegal, who was also on the team.

"Such experiences offer us new ideas for making full use of our venues to promote fine art, like building artists' villages."

More cooperation between China and Africa will follow, he says.

For these cultural promoters, the project also serves to correct any stereotypes about Chinese culture that might exist in Africa.

"In the 1960s, when I was a small kid, I often watched Chinese films, which were screened outdoors in my village," recalls Martial Goualebanzoume, an art designer for museums who works at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Congo.

For most people in his homeland, that kind of experience was their first "clear view of how China looks".

But there are still many people in Africa whose impressions of China are behind the times, he says.

Goualebanzoume considers the visit an opportunity to let people know about the development of modern Chinese culture by sharing his experiences in Shenzhen.

"African culture is so diverse," Goualebanzoume says. "When we organize exhibitions, we often want to show everything. Our experience in Shenzhen has taught us that it is better to choose a relatively small aspect and present it with more expertise."

Henri Randrianierenana, a theater manager from Madagascar who was with the party, says the spread of digital technology in his country has enabled young people to better understand modern Chinese culture.

"In Madagascar, young people are also glued to their smartphones all the time, much like the scenario in China," he says. "I am sure that if games and social network apps from Shenzhen were introduced to Madagascar, they would be extremely popular."

People have long held stereotypical views of China, largely because traditional media, which is dominated by the West, projected the country in a particular way. New technology, however, has created a better means for Chinese and Africans to communicate directly, he says.

With more Africans having a better understanding of Chinese culture, Randrianierenana says, there will be greaten demand for Chinese cultural professionals to visit Africa.

Contact the writer at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn

At a glance

Since last year, when the One Thousand People Plan was launched by the Ministry of Culture, more than 200 people from Africa have received training in cultural management in China.

The project aims to train 1,000 African officials and others in cultural fields by the end of 2018.

The plan was first advocated by President Xi Jinping to promote comprehensive partnerships between China and Africa.

From martial arts and intangible cultural heritage protection to museum management, the program offers a wide range of choices to trainees.

Before being held in Shenzhen early this month, training was given at martial arts schools, art hubs, universities and other cultural institutions in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and in Henan, Liaoning and Sichuan provinces.

The China Cultural Centers in the African countries of Benin, Mauritius, Egypt, Nigeria and Tanzania are holding training sessions, which have attracted more than 200 participants.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/16/2016 page21)