Cultural event celebrates 40 years of bilateral relations

The Chinese Tourism and Culture Week, an event that aims to showcase Chinese culture and promote economic opportunities between China and the United States, kicked off Friday with a photo exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the bilateral relationship.

Around 50 officials, including civic and business leaders, gathered at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, for the opening ceremony of the weeklong event, which will continue until Friday with activities including food tastings and a China world heritage photo exhibition.

Zhang Ping, Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, said the event provides an opportunity for the general public to better understand what has been achieved in Sino-American relations over the past four decades and to reflect on how to shape the relationship going forward.

In his opening remarks, he also praised the importance of people-to-people exchange between the US and China.

"We also need to draw strength from our people, as we believe that people-to-people connection serves as the driving force behind the development of our bilateral relations and constitutes the very foundation of friendship and cooperation between the two sides," Zhang said.

About 5 million Chinese and American tourists traveled to one another's countries last year, the consul general said. That number included 1.1 million Chinese who visited Los Angeles.

"We need to increase mutual understanding by enhancing exchange and mutual learning among different civilizations, realizing that we live in a world of diverse cultures and civilizations, and we share the same destiny of mankind. We need to learn from other cultures and civilizations, realizing that every civilization, though different, is equal and has its strength and merits," he added.

The 2019 Chinese Tourism and Culture Week is a series of events organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bureau of the People's Republic of China from May 15 to June 30.

Through exhibitions, shows, lectures and forums hosted by Chinese cultural centers and overseas tourism offices in different countries, the cultural week aims to showcase modern China and connect it with the rest of the world.

The Los Angeles cultural week began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the statues depicting the historic handshake between Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and US President Richard Nixon, which took place in February 1972, a moment that symbolized the opening of a new chapter in the China-US relationship.

"Since normalization 40 years ago, the annual trade relationship between the US and China reached over $500 billion. The number of people-to-people exchanges between the countries has grown exponentially — extending to arts, culture, science and technology," said William Baribault, president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Edward Beneda, a guest at Friday's ceremony whose father, Glen Beneda, was a Flying Tigers pilot during World War II and the subject of the film Touching the Tigers, stressed the importance of people-to-people exchange in an interview with China Daily.

"It's very good that we have trade together, and we have friendship, and we have the cultural exchange of students, because when you get to know the people-on-people relationship, you get to know the real way that American people live, and the real way that the Chinese people live," he said.

The opening ceremony featured Chinese guzheng (a zither, or stringed instrument) and cello performances by Orange County Music and Dance. It also included a Chinese arts and crafts exhibition.