In the evening of November 26^th, the “Maritime Silk Road International Art Festival” and the maritime carnival of the Culture City of East Asia·2014, Quanzhou were held in Quanzhou City of Fujian Province. Attendees of the opening ceremony included but not limited to Lin Wenyi, vice chairman of the CPPCC, Ding Wei, vice culture minister, Li Shulei, publicity minister and member of the standing committee of Fujian provincial people’s congress, and Li Hong, vice governor of Fujian province. The flag handover ceremony of the 14^th Asia Art Festival was also held in the opening ceremony. Huang Shaoping, secretary of Quanzhou municipal people’s congress, hosted the opening ceremony.

    Ding Wei said in his speech that he sent his congratulation to the achievement of “the culture city of East Asia” and to the opening ceremony of the Maritime Silk Road International Arts Festival. He also said that after being chosen into the first batch of “the culture city of East Asia”, Quanzhou had been sticking to the principle of “East Asia awareness, cultural integration and mutual appreciation” and had been conducting a series of effective cultural exchanges with Yokohama in Japan and Kwangju in South Korea, promoting cultural exchanges and cooperation in China, Japan and South Korea. This event promoted the cultural communication with “Europe cultural city” and the city’s economic and cultural construction. The Culture Minister and Fujian People’s Government supported Quanzhou to create a cultural brand of the Maritime Silk Road by jointly holding “Maritime Silk Road International Art Festival” which was hoped to start a new peak of the culture city of East Asia·2014 Quanzhou.

    Ding Wei said that culture city of East Asia·2014 Quanzhou was close to the end and a new start was arriving for the city in the communication and cooperation between countries of East Asia culture. The 14^th Asia Art Festival would start in Quanzhou in 2015. it’s co-hosted by Culture Minister and Fujian Provincial People’s Government. He believed that Quanzhou would continue to carry on it’s responsibility and promote it’s cultural accumulation as one of the cities of the first batch of “culture cities of East Asia”. Quanzhou would hold an art festival with international standard, Asian atmosphere and Quanzhou features, through which we would make Asian culture and art more prosperous; push the cultural communication between countries and contribute to the friendship and mutual understanding between people.

    Later, Li Hong took the flag of Asia Art Festival from Ding Wei and gave it to Zheng Xincong, mayor of Quanzhou. This marked the start of the preparation for the 14^th Asia Art Festival in 2015.

    The vice president of Yokohama of Japan and the chairman of the promotion committee of the culture city of East Asia of Kwangju of South Korea attended the opening ceremony. Zhang Aiping, director of Foreign Cultural Liaison Bureau of the Culture Ministry, and Chen Xianghong, Deputy Director of the Department of Public Culture, also attended.