On October 19th, the opening ceremony of the 22nd Shanghai International Art Festival was held at the Concert Hall of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Chen Jining, Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, attended this event. Hu Heping, Deputy Minister in charge of daily work in the Publicity Department and Minister of Culture and Tourism, delivered a speech and announced the opening of the art festival. Gong Zheng, Deputy Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, addressed the meeting.
Hu Heping stated in his speech that in recent years, Shanghai has taken the lead in reform and opening up, taken on the pioneering role in innovative development, fully and accurately adopted the new development philosophy, and strived to write a new chapter in accelerating the construction of a modern socialist international metropolis with global influence.
The remarkable achievements in cultural and tourism work have injected strong impetus into high-quality economic and social development and cultural exchanges between China and other countries. The Shanghai International Art Festival has achieved impressive results and highlighted brand value, becoming a renowned art festival with professionalism, comprehensiveness, and international significance. President Xi announced the eight major steps China will take to support our joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and highlighted the need of deepening dialogue among civilizations within BRI countries in his keynote speech at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. We will take this art festival as an opportunity to implement the Global Civilization Initiative, advance the “Cultural Silk Road” plan, enhance cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation, jointly expand the common ground, and foster mutual understanding and mutual learning among the people.
Gong Zheng said in his speech that China had mapped out a grand blueprint for Chinese path to modernization on the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party. The Shanghai International Art Festival in China gathered art treasures from all over the world and boosted cultural exchange and mutual learning between China and foreign countries. It has become an influential and world-renowned art festival, becoming an attractive and iconic cultural “golden card” for Shanghai. We must bravely undertake new missions, seize the opportunity to embark on a new journey, and become an important window for cultural exchange and mutual learning, a dream stage for innovative performance of arts, and a popular festival for the public to benefit from art. With art, the language of the world, we can keep our hearts closer and communicate with the world, empower excellent Chinese culture to go out and the world’s colorful culture to come in, enabling people in Shanghai to fully experience the charm of art and enriching their cultural life. It empowered Shanghai to build a cultural highland with global influence, and contributed to achieving cultural prosperity and developing socialist culture.
Officials of Shanghai, including Zhao Jiaming, Li Zheng, Chen Jing, Liu Duo, Jin Xingming, and official of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Li Changguan, official of Shaanxi Province Xu Mingfei, and official of Gansu Province Guo Tiankang attended.
After the opening ceremony, a symphonic poem titled “Ode to the Silk Road” was performed. The performance was jointly launched by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Museum. It was a brand-new creation based on the theme works of the Silk Road. After ten years of polishing, it presented the historical context, global vision and contemporary values of the “the Belt and Road” artistically with three chapters of “exploration”, “dream” and “harmony”, and demonstrated the Silk Road spirit of “peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win results”.
The Shanghai International Art Festival in China is hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and organized by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. This art festival adheres to the principle of “holding a grand event of art and a festival for the people”, and launches 77 domestic and foreign performances. The “Sky of Art” series of performances covers 16 districts in Shanghai, with nearly 60 performances by over a hundred famous artists and groups. About 500 professional institutions and 1500 industry guests from around the world participated in the art festival performance fair.
Later in the afternoon, the Network of Silk Road Arts Festivals Forum was held in the Grand Halls, with the theme of “Openness, Inclusiveness, and Mutual Learning—Co-creating Silk Road of Cultures and Arts”. All related members gathered together to review the fruitful achievements of exchanges, explore and look to the future, and jointly sign the Shanghai Consensus of the Network of Silk Road Arts Festivals Forum. Hu Heping attended and delivered a speech, and Zhao Jiaming and Liu Duo attended. Heads of Chinese and foreign art institutions, such as Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, the IKSV, and the Ljubljana Art Festival of Slovenia, delivered keynote speeches.