China to host BRICS cultural festival

A BRICS cultural festival will be held later this month in China with more than 200 artists from member countries being invited, a cultural ministry official said at a press conference in Xiamen, Fujian Province on Sunday.

Xie Jinying, general director of the Department of External Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Culture, said the BRICS Cultural Festival would be held in Xiamen from Sept. 15 to 22. An inauguration ceremony and a photo exhibition will be held on Monday afternoon during the ninth BRICS Summit being held in the coastal city, as China takes the rotating chair of the influential bloc.

With the theme of "celebrating culture and bridging hearts," the festival will invite 210 artists from the BRICS countries to participate in more than 30 events, including theatrical performances, outdoor performances, master classes, exhibitions and film screenings, Xie said.

Many world class performing troupes will be present, including the National Ballet of China, Brazil's Cisne Negro Dance Troupe, Russia's Mariinsky Theatre, Aditi Dance School of India, and South Africa's Jo’burg Ballet, he noted. All the events will be free to the public.

Xie also mentioned the 2017 BRICS Film Festival, the first of the kind held in June in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, as well as an anthology of short films by five directors from the countries involved under the general title of "Where Has the Time Gone".

Xie told the press conference, "BRICS countries enjoy fast growth in terms of filmmaking," adding, "'Where Has the Time Gone' is the first of its kind and we can see the fabulous results of the collaboration. The 118-minute film presents the culture, traditions and modern life of BRICS countries and it will debut globally soon. I believe in the future the BRICS countries will strengthen cooperation and communications in filmmaking."

The feature film consists of five 18-minute shorts on the same theme, and is the joint work of Walter Salles from Brazil, Aleksey Fedorchenko from Russia, Madhur Bhandarkar from India, Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from South Africa, and Jia Zhangke from China. The collaboration project known as the "Magnificent 5" was a creative idea formed when leaders of the five countries met in India in 2016.

"Understanding serves as the foundation of cooperation," said Xie, who mentioned the word "understanding" many times at the press conference. He hoped the cultural exchanges would enhance the people's thinking to encourage further beneficial cooperation.

He described cultural exchange as one of the three pillars in BRICS cooperation. Conducting cultural and people-to-people exchanges to gain support from the public was one of the key goals of the Xiamen summit, he pointed out.

"BRICS countries share basic values that embody openness, inclusiveness, equality, willingness to cooperate and respect for diverse cultures. This connects the BRICS members and it is the spiritual driving force for them to achieve economic growth and improve global governance.

"All BRICS countries believe culture is significantly important to the development of society, so that cultural exchanges and cooperation will become the new driving force for the social and economic development. This will help build a more prosperous and safer society for each other," he said.

"Located on four different continents, all BRICS countries are important representatives of diversified human civilization, and we share a broad base of common consensus and willingness to promote understanding through cultural exchanges, share wisdom through cultural cooperation, and push forward social progress through cultural development," Xie added.

BRICS leaders are meeting in Xiamen for the 9th BRICS Summit. The nations' foreign, finance and security ministers also meet regularly. On July 6, the 2nd BRICS Ministerial Conference for BRICS Cultural Ministries was held in Tianjin, where an Action Plan for the Implementation of the Intergovernmental Cultural Agreement on the BRICS (2017-2021) was signed.

The next BRICS Cultural Ministerial Conference will be held in South Africa. Xie hoped the BRICS cultural activities could form a regular mechanism, and the events could not only be held in the high-class venues but also in a wide range of communities.