On October 7th, the 4th Sino-French Cultural Forum commenced in Nice, southern France. During the forum, some 300 participants were invited for discussions and exchanges on cooperation in the areas like tourism, cultural industry, film, and education.
During the opening ceremony of the event, Chen Zhu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, said that it is of great significance to hold such event as the year of 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Work-Study Movement in France.
“With the Belt and Road Initiative as its theme, the forum aims to gather vibrant strengths of our two countries through cultural exchanges and to promote cultural pluralism and the multipolar development. It also advocates that exchange should replace clashes and win-win cooperation should replace violent wars .” Chen Zhu said.
Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that, despite the differences between the French and Chinese cultures, the two countries have always adhered to coexistence between different cultures and respected each other. In face of the challenges and conflicts in today's world, he said countries should coordinate their efforts to promote peace and convergence through cultural exchanges.
The Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye said China and France should uphold the Silk Road spirit of “peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and win-win cooperation” to play an important role in reinforcing dialogue between civilizations and promoting cultural diversity under current situation.
French Minister of Culture Franck Riester recalled that cultural exchanges between France and China have been increasing in recent years and collaboration on arts, cinema and publications has strengthened. The two countries have also advanced cooperation in museum exchange, heritage protection and library digitization.
The Former Chinese Minister of Culture Cai Wu said that cultural exchanges have become an important part of China-France ties, yielding fruitful results. He proposed that the two governments should enhance policy communication and dialogue, step up great efforts to develop people-to-people diplomacy, advance in-depth cooperation between cultural entities, and further promote two-way tourism development.