In the morning of December 14th, the 2021 China-Japan-Korea Cultural Art and Tourism Week was started in Jingdezhen city of Jiangxi province. The theme of the event was “heart-to-heart communication lasts forever”. It’s hosted by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Jiangxi Culture and Tourism Department and Jingdezhen People’s Government with guidance from Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Jiangxi People’s Government. Speeches were given by Zhuang Zhaolin, member of the standing committee of the CPC committee of Jiangxi and the director of the publicity department of provincial party committee, Cheng Yonghua, former Japanese ambassador to China and executive vice chairman of China-Japan friendship association, Xie Jinying, director of the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Zhang Xilong, deputy director of the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kim Jin Gon, culture counsellor of Korean Embassy in China and president of Korea Cultural Center, Li Xiaobao, provincial culture and tourism director, Wang Yihua, secondary inspector of the publicity department of Jiangxi province, Huang Xiaorong, deputy director of the Jiangxi provincial culture and tourism department, Wu Jun, deputy secretary of Jingdezhen, Lin Rong, member of the standing committee of Jingdezhen CPC committee and publicity minister of the municipal CPC committee, Deng Yongxiang, member of the standing committee of Jingdezhen CPC committee and executive vice mayor, Xu Hui, vice mayor, Liu Zili, excutive vice director of the management commission of the Jingdezhen national ceramics cultural inheritance and innovation pilot zone, and the director of the Korean cultural hall of Korean-China Cultural Friendship Association. Speeches were given by Zhuang Yaolin, Xie Jinying and Deng Yongxiang. Video speeches were given by Mr. Jang Ha-sung, Korean ambassador to China, the charge d'affaire in Japanese Embassy in China, Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Chinese representative of the UNESCO in China, and the mayor of Tajimi of Japan.
Zhuang Zhaolin said that Jingdezhen was a brand city with most cultural and historical features and the strongest global influence in Jiangxi. The long history and the profound culture of ceramics production were bridge linking people from different countries. In recent years, Jiangxi government had been keeping Xi Jinping’s guidance to “build a national pilot zone for cultural inheritance and innovation of Jingdezhen ceramics to create a new platform for international cultural exchanges”. Relating departments had been working hard to make new steps in this direction. The inheritance of ceramics had obvious improvement. The ceramics industry was stepping forward with increasing number of talented people and improving level of international exchanges and cooperation. Significant changes was going on in the thousand-year-old town.
Zhuang Zhaolin said that the 2021 China-Japan-Korea Cultural Art and Tourism Week was an important measure to support Jingdezhen to be a “cultural city in East Asia” by displaying the resource and effort, so as to build a communication platform for ceramics cultural communication, injecting new vitality to people-to-people communication in East Asia. Supporting Jingdezhen to be the “cultural city in East Asia” of 2023 was conducive to show to East Asia and the world the achievement of a national pilot zone for cultural inheritance and innovation of Jingdezhen ceramics as well as to promote the outstanding Chinese culture and back up the construction of a country with strong culture, so as to improve the influence of the Chinese culture in East Asia. He stressed that Jingdezhen should see ceramics culture as the city’s core competence as always and create a new platform for international cultural communication, so as to contribute more to a national new development structure in Jiangxi.
Xie Jinying said that China was the hometown of ceramics which was also the representative of China. Along with the change of time, ceramics had became the the heritage of civilizations of different countries in various era and precious cultural relics for all human. China, Japan and Korea had been having a long history of close communication in ceramics culture and art, especially in recent decades when relating cultural exchanges and economic cooperation had been developing fast, so ceramics had became the bridge linking the cultural communication between the three countries. Jingdezhen was a national cultural and historical city based on ceramics. It boasted a long history of making ceramics and was a ceramics center famous in the world. Now, Jingdezhen was spending all effort to build a national pilot zone for the inheritance and innovation of ceramics culture, so as to inspire new life and vitality of the thousand-year-old ceramic art center in the international communication. He hoped that people can know more about each other through the event. The the culture-linked interaction between the art circle in three countries could be promoted, so as to stimulate the development of ceramics art and culture in three countries and the thriving progress of tourism. The practical cultural and tourism cooperation in the three countries would present the inexhaustible charm of the civilizations in East Asia and create a glorious future for civilizations in East Asia.
Deng Yongxiang said that Jingdezhen was an international ceramics center and a thousand-year-old town. It’s ceramics production lasted more than 2000 years; it’s official kilns started more than 1000 years ago and it’s imperial kilns were set up more than 600 years ago. In recent years, the national pilot zone had been the main development plan with two specific plans, namely the “five new” strategic action plan and the industrial multiply three-year action plan, which start a new journey to build a socialist modern international ceramics center in all aspects. Building a “cultural city in East Asia” was an important task of the national pilot zone, which was why attention was attached to this. The tourism week boasted rich and colorful events, making it an important platform of the “cultural city in East Asia”. He hoped that heads of governments and guests would support Jingdezhen to be elected. The city would also see the event as an opportunity to push forward the city’s process to be elected and to contribute to the cultural exchanges and development in East Asia.
In the opening ceremony, the initiative pole was pulled down jointly by Zhuang Zhaolin, Cheng Yonghua, Xie Jinying, Zhang Xilong, Kim Jin Gon, Li Xiaobao, Wang Yihua, Huang Xiaorong, Wu Jun and Deng Yongxiang. They initiated the 2021 China-Japan-Korea Cultural Art and Tourism Week. Kim Jin Gon delivered a keynote speech relating to people-to-people communication and regional cooperation in Northeast Asia in the post-pandemic era. During the performance section, a traditional song in Chinese and Japanese was offered by a Japanese inheritor of shamisen art, a young Chinese performer of tsugaru-jamisen and drums players from Egypt and Middle East. Ethnic and pop songs were sang by a famous Korean singer to let people feel the sound of Korea. A performance of morin khuur was offered by a famous international artist who was also an inheritor of Chinese intangible cultural heritage, letting people to feel a stretch of wide grassland.