In the evening of September 15th, the 2021 “Belt and Road”·the Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival was held in International Cultural Exchange Center of the Silk Road. It’s co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Hebei provincial people’s government. Yang Jiechi, member of the political bureau of the CPC central committee and director of Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, attended the opening ceremony and met ambassadors to China from relating countries as well as representatives from international organizations. Those delivering speeches at the opening ceremony were Hu Heping, minister and secretary of the leading party group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Wang Dongfeng, secretary of the provincial party committee and director of the standing committee of the provincial people’s congress of Henan province, chairman of UNESCO Executive Board, and Андрей Иванович Денисов, Russia ambassador to China. The festival was hosted by Xu Qin, governor and deputy secretary of party committee of Hebei province. Attendees included Tie Ning, chairman of China Writers Association and China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Ye Dongsong, chairman of Hebei provincial CPPCC.
Yang Jiechi said that in Xi Jinping’s congratulation letter, the president spoke highly of important results having been achieved since the establishment of the “belt and road” initiative, recognized the significance of the folk culture art festival and readvocated China’s wish to work hand in hand with other countries to build the “belt and road” and to support the progress of human civilization.
Yang Jiechi said that in 2013, Xi Jinping brought up the visionary “belt and road” initiative, taking both the domestic and international situations into consideration and aiming to creating a better future for the international society. It received positive response form the world. In the last 8 years, China had initiated a series of practical, cooperative and people-benefiting projects; constructed a comprehensive, all-dimensional and interconnected partnership and created a new bond for communication and mutual-learning between civilizations. The “belt and road” initiative could benefit people in the world and had became an international cooperation platform with the largest scale and the most popular international public products.
Yang Jiechi said that the organizers of the art festival needed to complement the spirit conveyed in the congratulation letter wrote by Xi Jinping; to embody the the historical accumulation of Hebei province, unique cultural characteristics, positioning advantages and the spirit of the Silk Road; to enhance exchanges, mutual learning, mutual-learning and open cooperation and to combine dreams of people in every country and Chinese dream to jointly construct the “belt and road”, so as to contribute art and cultural strength to the joint construction of the “belt and road”.
Hu Heping said in his speech that the joint construction of the “belt and road” was advocated, planed and promoted by president Xi Jinping himself. After 8 years, the initiative offered a Chinese plan to improve global governance and new opportunities to enhance world development. 2021 “Belt and Road”·the Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival saw the promotion of the Silk Road spirit and the Great Wall culture as the theme and saw the push to carry out folk art and cultural communication as a key task. The festival was another cultural communication platform to cooperatively build the “belt and road”. The next step for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism was to carry out the cultural and tourism develop action plan of the “14th five year” plan and the “belt and road” initiative. The ministry would expand cooperation area, add communication channel, build dialogue platform, tell the story of the Silk Road, push communication and mutual learning, promote people-to-people connection, so as to start a new condition among the cultural and tourism communication and cooperation along the “belt and road” initiative and to contribute more to the joint construction of the “belt and road” initiative and human community of a shared future.
In Wang Dongfeng’s speech, he expressed welcome to all attending guests in the opening ceremony on behalf of provincial party committee, standing committee of the provincial people’s congress, provincial government, provincial CPPCC and people in the province. He said that the joint construction of the “belt and road” initiative was an important decision made by the CPC central committee to take into consideration the domestic and international condition and to construct a human communication with a joint future. We were deeply encouraged by the instructions and congratulation letter from president Xi Jinping. Director Yang Jiechi attended the opening ceremony, read the letter form the president and delivered a speech, all of which supported work in Hebei. Places and departments of the province needed to implement the content in the congratulation letter and spirit of a series of important instruction as well as the requirement of Yang Jiechi. They needed to be integrated into the “belt and road” initiative, to enhance exchanges and integration, to accelerate the construction of a province with strong economy and beautiful Hebei and to contribute Hebei strength to build a strong modern socialist country and to realize the Chinese dream of revitalizing the great Chinese nation.
UNESCO Executive Board said in his speech that president Xi Jinping brought up the the joint construction of the “belt and road” with visionary insight and determined resolution. His goal was to promote the sustainable development and people-to-people communication along the route. This was a great cause and the Silk Road spirit was bound to leave treasure to human civilization.
Félix Plasencia said in his speech that culture and art saw no boundary. Art communication could promote the understanding and mutual communication between people in different countries. He hoped that through this cultural art festival, people-to-people communication between China and Venezuela would develop and thusly benefited people in these two countries.
Андрей Иванович Денисов said in his speech that Russia and Hebei province enjoyed good cooperation. This art and cultural festival could enhance Russian people’s understanding of Hebei culture. At present, the Covid-19 pandemic was still spreading, so he hoped that the festival would expand the channel of exchanges between countries and promote communication and mutual learning between civilization.
The performance started after the opening ceremony. There were five sections namely “beauty of different origins”, “the light of the Silk Road”, “inside and the outside the Great Wall”, “the song of the era” and “joint construction and shared benefit”. The organizers used art styles including instrument, dance, songs, Chinese operas and acrobatics as well as techniques of modern dance like song and light to show the importance of the Great Wall in pushing the communication between cultures in different cities and in the connection between people. It’s an art festival for guests from home and abroad.
Attendees of the opening ceremony included Cai Wu, former culture minister, Chen Haosu, secretary of the leading party group, Liu Jianzhao, deputy director of Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, Chen Zhou, vice minister of International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Yuan Ansheng, vice president and general secretary of the Great Wall Society of China, Yan Xiaoming, deputy director of the China Media Group, Zhao Shaohua, former vice culture minister, Chang Shu, deputy editor-in-chief of Guangming Daily, Wang Hong, vice mayor of Beijing, Wang Xu, vice mayor of Tianjin, Li Xiaobo, vice chairman of Shanxi provincial CPPCC, Wu Mingming, deputy director of the standing committee of Gansu provincial people’s congress, Peng Youdong, deputy director of the standing committee of the people’s congress of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Zhang Heping, former vice chairman of Beijing municipal CPPCC and former chairman of Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Foreign guests attending the opening ceremony included Mrs. Khek M. Caimealy, Cambodia’s ambassador to China, Mr. John Aquilina, Malta’s ambassador to China, Mr. Jose Augusto Duarte, Portugal’s ambassador to China, Mr. Luis Quesada, Peru’s ambassador to China, Mr. Luis Diego Monsalve Hoyos, Colombia’s ambassador to China, Mr. Raja Dato' Nushirwan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia’s ambassador to China, Shahbaz Khan, representative of UNESCO in China, Bisera Fabrio, Croatia’s Charge d'Affaires and counsellor, cultural counsellor of Slovakia Embassy in China, governor of Borsod in Hungary and secretary of state of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Croatia.
Attendees of the opening ceremony were heads of Hebei provincial government, including Yuan Tongli, Ran Wanxiang, Zhang Chaochao, Gao Zhili, Zhang Gujiang, Zhang Zheng, Zhang Guohua, Fan Zhaobing, Jiang Yanlong, Wang Xiaodong, Zhang Meizhi, Zia Yanjun and Bian Faji; officials of branch departments of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Government Offices Administration directly under the CPC Central Committee and people in charge of cultural and art enterprises in Beijing and Tianjin and representatives of cultural and art research institutes; heads of culture and tourism departments of the “belt and road” and provinces (districts and cities) along the route and heads of departments directly under Hebei provincial government and heads of department of cities (including Dingzhou and Xinji) of Hebei province.
Before the opening ceremony, Hu Heping, Wang Dongfeng, Xu Qin and other officials visited the “Centennial Heritage Folk Art Exhibition” with guests from home and abroad.