Cultural year starts in Greece

Event will highlight links between two great civilizations

Cultural links between two of the world's most ancient civilizations have been reinforced with the launching of the China-Greece Cultural Exchanges and Cultural Industry Cooperation Year, attended by visiting senior Chinese officials and Greek dignitaries in Athens on Thursday.

Those who attended the grand opening ceremony at Athens' Byzantine and Christian Museum included Liu Qibao, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis and Greek Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou.

Before the opening ceremony, Liu met with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, president of the New Democracy party.

"Although China and Greece are remote in physical distance, the two great civilizations do share a lot in common," Koniordou said. "Through cultural links, Chinese and Greek people can be more closely connected, and this is a pivotal part of overall China-Greece strategic cooperation."

Early cultural and economic contacts between ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations can be traced back to as far as China's Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), according to archaeological findings.

The year is seen as an ongoing extension of such contact, which is instrumental to deepening mutual understanding and trust.

The year of cultural exchange starts with cooperation between the Chinese and Greek movie and book industries. Moviegoers now can expect more quality joint productions in the upcoming years and book fans won't wait for too long for literature classics translated into their respective languages.

Liu and Dragasakis witnessed the signing of two key documents between China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and Greece's Ministry of Culture and Sports for movie and book coproduction. At least 50 Chinese and Greek classic works will be translated and published in the next five years.

Yu Qun, assistant to China's minister of culture, said both China and Greece made tremendous intellectual contributions to human civilization. "We should take this opportunity in the year of exchange to intensify the relationship between the two peoples."

Zou Xiaoli, Chinese ambassador to Greece, told Xinhua that cultural exchange is an integral part of Sino-Greek ties and also plays an important role in China-Europe relationship.

Another major high-profile exchange event is an exhibition highlighting the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games at the Byzantine and Christian Museum.

Zhang Fuhai, director of the China Foreign Language Publishing Administration, said he hopes visitors to the exhibition will see and feel China and Beijing's sincere and down-to-the-earth determination to have a beautiful and successful Winter Olympics.

"We believe that the Olympic ideals which originate from ancient Greece will shine brightly once again in Beijing," he said.

Visitors can experience a virtual tour of the venues with the help of virtual reality equipment at the exhibition.

A parallel exhibition dedicated to the rich cultural heritage of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province also started and will run for three weeks.

leixiaoxun@chinadaily.com.cn