Original title: A new chapter in the spectrum of exchange and mutual learning
"Silk Road Flower Rain" appeared at the first Dunhuang Cultural Fair. New Gansu Gansu Daily reporter Gao Zhu
On April 27, 2023, the "11th Dunhuang Travel Silk Road International Tourism Festival World Tourism Alliance Silk Road Dialogue" was held in Zhangye.
New Gansu Gansu Daily reporter Feng Lekai
New Gansu Gansu Daily reporter Wang Ruijun Ma Ying
Exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations are the driving force for promoting the progress of human society and the link for safeguarding world peace.
Silk Ancient Road, a thousand years long. Located in the golden section of the Silk Road, Gansu, with its rich history and diverse culture, provides a broad and fertile soil for further expanding foreign exchanges and cooperation.
In the past 10 years since the major initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road" was proposed, Gansu has seized the "greatest opportunity" of the "Belt and Road" construction, based on functional positioning, given full play to the advantages of the golden channel, strengthened and optimized the open platform, strengthened cooperation with the countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" in cultural exchanges, economic and trade exchanges, and contributed to promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
Enhance the level of promotion and reproduce the brilliance of the Silk Road
Gansu is an important birthplace of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization, where the ancestor culture, farming culture, Yellow River culture, Silk Road culture, red culture and folk culture are intertwined.
Dunhuang, the pearl of the Silk Road, amazes the world with its majestic historical heritage and profound cultural connotation. "Dunhuang culture has lasted for nearly 2,000 years and is the crystallization of long-term exchanges and integration of various civilizations. Gansu has an unshirkable responsibility to protect, promote, inherit and develop Dunhuang culture. Su Bomin, president of the Dunhuang Academy, said, "We cherish this precious cultural heritage left by our ancestors, always adhere to the priority of protection, improve the level of promotion, and strive to tell the story of Dunhuang and spread the voice of China through various ways." ”
Cultural relics protection, value research, cultural inheritance, heritage management, digital technology, academic exchanges... Over the past 10 years, Gansu has given full play to the unique advantages and status of cultural resources, extensively cooperated and exchanged with more than 60 countries and regions, and promoted Dunhuang culture and Silk Road culture to the world.
"Silk Road Dunhuang Mural Exhibition Enters the United Nations", "Religious Art on the Silk Road - Dunhuang Buddhist Grotto Exhibition", "'Digital Dunhuang' Exhibition"... In the past 10 years, Gansu has held many exhibitions and exhibitions with the theme of Silk Road culture overseas, building a bridge between the mainland and the countries jointly building the "Belt and Road".
At the same time, Gansu also led the establishment of the "Silk Road Cultural Relics Science and Technology Innovation Alliance" and the "Silk Road Cultural Heritage Protection International Science and Technology Cooperation Base", built the National Engineering Technology Research Center for the Protection of Ancient Mural Paintings and Soil Sites and the country's first multi-field coupling laboratory for cultural relics protection, and promoted relevant scientific research achievements and standards to the "Belt and Road" countries.
In particular, on the road of building a "model for the protection of world cultural heritage" and a "highland of Dunhuang studies", Gansu has carried out extensive cultural exchanges and dialogues with an open, inclusive and world-oriented international vision, and achieved gratifying results.
"Silk Road Flower Rain", a dance drama based on the murals of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, takes the peace and friendship of the Silk Road as the theme, and draws on the art of the "Belt and Road" countries and regions, which has been passed down for 44 years and has performed more than 3,800 performances, covering the north and south of the river, and all over the world, which is a veritable "cultural business card" in Gansu and even China.
China's first large-scale documentary on the topic of Asian civilization, "Dialogue between Mogao Grottoes and Angkor Wat", comprehensively shows the wonderful connection between the world's largest grotto Mogao Grottoes and the world's largest temple Angkor Wat, which transcends time and space and becomes a "model of the times" for the integration of ancient and modern, contemporary and future.
Theatrical performances, intangible cultural heritage displays, cultural lectures, exchange of styles... Gansu has taken the express train of the "Belt and Road" construction to fully implement the annual ministry-provincial cooperation plan with nine overseas Chinese cultural centers, including Seoul, Cairo, Moscow, Ulaanbaatar, Tel Aviv, Paris, Laos, Kuala Lumpur and Wellington, to promote cultural dissemination and exchanges and cooperation.
The beauty of Dunhuang, the beauty of the past thousand years, and the beauty of the future is infinite. In the new era and new journey, Dunhuang carries a new mission, inherits and carries forward the Silk Road spirit of "peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit", promotes people-to-people bonds, strengthens cultural exchanges and cooperation, promotes cultural innovation and development, and reproduces the grand scene of the convergence and integration of Silk Road civilizations.
Give play to resource advantages and build a strong province in culture and tourism
"Shaping tourism with culture and highlighting culture with tourism" is the essence of the in-depth integration and development of the cultural tourism industry.
"The 'Silk Road' is very beautiful, nine points in Gansu." He Xiaozu, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, said that as a bright pearl on the "Belt and Road", Gansu is building a strong province of cultural tourism with the efforts of the whole province, placing the cultural tourism industry in the priority position of the practice of Chinese-style modernization in Gansu, opening a new situation of cultural and tourism integration towards high-quality development.
In 2019, the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Culture Expo and the Dunhuang Silk Road International Tourism Festival were jointly held, which was praised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a model of cultural and tourism integration. Since then, the "One Meeting, One Session", which was born in Gansu, has played an increasingly important role in promoting people-to-people ties among the countries of the "Belt and Road".
On April 30, 2023, the 11th Dunhuang Silk Road International Tourism Festival ended perfectly in Zhangye City. Previous "Tourism Festivals" have become important international festivals for implementing the "Belt and Road" initiative, promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning on the Silk Road, win-win tourism cooperation, people-to-people bonds, and displaying the splendid culture of the Silk Road and the image of Gansu's opening to the outside world.
On September 7th, the 6th Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Culture Expo came to an end. Up to now, based on the advantages of cultural resources and the international influence of Dunhuang, Gansu has successfully held 6 sessions of the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Culture Expo, attracting more than 4,000 representatives of cultural and tourism governments and enterprises from more than 100 countries around the world to participate, holding more than 50 forums and conferences, more than 100 theatrical performances, and displaying more than 20,000 cultural and artistic masterpieces from many countries.
Gansu has also relied on overseas Chinese cultural centers, tourism offices and relevant overseas cultural tourism institutions to build international festival platforms such as the Tianshui Fuxi Cultural Tourism Festival, the Jiushi Gannan Shambhala Tourism and Art Festival, and the Lanzhou International Drum Culture and Art Week, actively publicizing and promoting Gansu's cultural tourism resources, promoting people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning, and further broadening the channels of interconnection and cross-regional cooperation with countries that jointly build the "Belt and Road".
"Going out" enhances Gansu's reputation with the outside world. He Xiaozu introduced that our province continues to improve the tourism promotion system, actively implements overseas public tourism publicity and promotion projects, and the popularity and influence of "Symphony Silk Road Ruyi Gansu" continue to expand.
Gansu has successively held tourism promotion and investment promotion activities in 24 countries and regions that jointly build the "Belt and Road"; Together with Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou and tourism enterprises covering the 10 ASEAN countries, we jointly initiated the establishment of the "Southbound Corridor Tourism Promotion Alliance" to jointly build the "Southbound Corridor" of cultural tourism; Signed strategic agreements on tourism friendly cooperation with key cities and institutions such as Seoul City, Valencia Region of Spain, and German Travel Salesmen's Association; Strengthen cooperation with platform institutions such as the World Tourism Alliance and the Silk Road Tourism Alliance, and carry out all-round brand image publicity of Gansu cultural tourism......
A series of measures have promoted the deep integration of Gansu's cultural tourism industry into the fast lane of high-quality development. In 2017, Gansu was listed as the best travel destination in Asia by Lonely Planet magazine; In 2018, Gansu ranked 17th in the "2018 Global 52 Must-Visit Destinations" released by The New York Times, and it was also the only province in China to be selected that year.
Deepen foreign cooperation and share development opportunities
Up to now, Gansu has established sister-city relations with 63 provinces, prefectures and municipalities in 40 countries on 5 continents.
In order to realize the beautiful vision of high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", Gansu has actively explored the best path for the introduction of the advantages of sister cities and the going out with Gansu characteristics in accordance with the idea of "resource opening and information sharing", carried out multi-level and wide-ranging non-governmental friendly cooperation, played an important role in serving the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" and improving the level of opening up, and has won the "International Sister City Exchange and Cooperation Award" issued by the National Friendship Association for many times.
"Promoting economic development and improving people's livelihood and well-being" is the common aspiration of the people of countries and regions that jointly build the "Belt and Road".
In July this year, as one of the important activities of the 29th Lanzhou Fair, the "International Sister City Industry Promotion and Economic and Trade Cooperation Matchmaking Conference" was held in Lanzhou. More than 70 international friends from 9 countries, including Belarus, Malaysia and Madagascar, attended the conference to find opportunities for cooperation in in-depth exchanges and inject new momentum into the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
"Distant relatives are better than close neighbors." Enkhbat, speaker of the Bayanhongal Provincial Assembly of Mongolia, said that the friendly exchanges between Bayanhongal Province and Gansu Province in Mongolia have a long history, and this matchmaking will deepen pragmatic exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, and sincerely welcome Chinese entrepreneurs to invest and set up business in Bayanhonger Province.
Gansu and the "Belt and Road" countries have continuously expanded the form and content of cooperation, promoted the continuous increase of trade volume between the two sides, and achieved mutual benefit and win-win results. Because of this, this matchmaking meeting has achieved fruitful results——
Qingyang City signed a memorandum of friendship and cooperation with Slonimsky District, Grodno Region, Belarus; Lanzhou University of Technology and the Education Science and Technology Bureau of Bayanhonger Provincial Government of Mongolia signed an agreement on the "China-Mongolia Friendship" undergraduate talent training project; Dingxi SDIC Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. signed an export agreement with Malaysia Longma Import and Export Trade Co., Ltd. for the export of Chinese medicinal materials......
"With the in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road construction, the fields of cooperation between Gansu and the countries that jointly build the Belt and Road have become broader and broader." Zhang Baojun, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Provincial People's Government and president of the Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said that our province is carrying out extensive cooperation with the "Belt and Road" countries in many fields such as economy and trade, education and medical care, promoting international sister city cooperation, and improving international exchange capabilities and internationalization.
Over the years, with the support of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Provincial People's Government, Provincial Construction Overseas Company has registered companies in 9 countries including Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana and Mozambique. At present, Provincial Construction Overseas Company has become the largest enterprise in Gansu to carry out foreign contracting projects and economic and technical cooperation business.
In 2019, the Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, together with the Provincial Department of Education and other relevant departments, launched the "100 Schools Together" project in primary and secondary schools in the province to promote international exchanges among young people through student mutual visits, teacher training, teaching exchanges, cultural and sports activities and other forms. At present, a total of 19 primary and secondary schools in the province have established friendly relations with 52 foreign schools, and established the "Gansu Province Primary and Secondary School Hundred Schools Good Cooperative Group".
In March this year, the 23rd batch of 32 members of the Chinese medical team in Gansu Province to aid Madagascar went on a mission. Since undertaking the task of foreign aid in 1975, our province has sent 23 batches of 687 medical teams to Madagascar, receiving a total of about 4.52 million patients, winning high praise from international friends.
Build a solid foundation of friendship and draw a better future together
As an important part of cultural exchanges between different countries, regions and ethnic groups, people-to-people exchanges play a pivotal role in disseminating the culture of various countries and displaying the national image.
In June 2022, the "Dunhuang Cultural Global Connection - Into Uzbekistan" event, hosted by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Provincial Government and the Dunhuang Academy and undertaken by the Dunhuang Municipal Government, was successfully held in Lanzhou, Tashkent and Dunhuang. At the event, Zhang Yuanlin, Vice President of the Dunhuang Academy, gave a special lecture entitled "Dunhuang - Cultural Treasures of the Silk Road", systematically expounding how the Silk Road became a trade route, a civilizational artery and a bond of friendship from three aspects: Dunhuang on the Silk Road, Dunhuang's multicultural remains, and the exchange between ancient China and ancient Uzbekistan from Dunhuang murals. As an important city for commercial trade and cultural exchanges on the Silk Road, Dunhuang has a long history of exchanges with Uzbekistan and other countries that jointly built the "Belt and Road". Since 2022, the Foreign Affairs Office of the provincial government has taken the initiative to explore the brand of Dunhuang cultural promotion, and jointly held 8 "Dunhuang Culture Global Connection Series Activities" with the Dunhuang Municipal Government to promote Dunhuang cultural exchange services to jointly build the "Belt and Road" and promote and jointly build civilizational dialogue and cultural exchanges among the "Belt and Road" countries.
For a long time, Gansu has looked at the world, taken steps to go abroad and to the world, built a platform for international cultural exchanges and mutual learning among world civilizations, and established profound friendship with people in many countries and regions.
A total of 335 exchange personnel from 62 countries participated in the international exchange training courses and international talent exchange training programs held in Gansu. The project focuses on people-to-people exchanges between international sister cities in our province, and through organizing international exchange staff to study and exchange and field visits, witness China's development achievements and listen to the development story of Gansu.
The moisturizer is fine and silent. People-to-people exchange activities have laid a solid foundation for friendship between Gansu and sister cities in the "Belt and Road" countries——
In March 2018, the Dunhuang Academy expert delegation went to Afghanistan to carry out archaeological investigation, which was hailed as an "ice-breaking journey" for cultural exchanges; In September 2019, the Provincial Museum signed a cooperation agreement with the National Unified Museum of Romania to promote exchanges in interlibrary culture, cultural relics protection, and personnel interaction. In August this year, the provincial folk song and dance troupe went to Bayanhongal Province and Gobi Altai Province in Mongolia for exchange performances, which aroused enthusiastic responses...
In terms of music exchanges, teachers and students of music departments of Lanzhou City College and Longnan Normal College participated in the Christchurch Lantern Festival in New Zealand, the Ayoyud Folk Art Festival in Romania and the Sibiu Art Festival, narrowing the distance between the people of the two places with beautiful music.
In terms of sports exchanges, our province and Christchurch City, New Zealand sent sports coaches and jointly formed teams to participate in youth table tennis competitions. In August 2021, the Sports Bureau of Gansu Province and the province of Florida, Uruguay, signed an exchange and cooperation agreement to carry out exchanges in the fields of football management, talent training, and campus football.
In August this year, Gansu Daily Newspaper Group and Gansu New Media Group signed cooperation agreements with the Belarusian Union of Journalists and Minsk News Agency, and unveiled the establishment of the liaison station between the Gansu International Communication Center and the Belarusian Union of Journalists, adding strength to the dissemination of the "Gansu Story" in the new era, amplifying the voice of Gansu and expanding the influence of Gansu.
Standing at a new historical starting point, Gansu is full of enthusiasm and lofty attitude, closely grasping the positioning and concentrating its efforts, promoting the integration of various ethnic cultures in the "Belt and Road" countries, and writing a colorful chapter of people-to-people bonds, mutual learning among civilizations and sharing of achievements.