Cultivating deeper cultural bonds encouraged at event

Engagement with China fosters a deeper understanding of the country and encourages more people from abroad to visit China, meet its people and experience its culture, said experts in education, art and music on Thursday.

They made the remarks during a Vision China event held at the global headquarters of the Institution of Civil Engineers in central London, the United Kingdom. The event, themed "Listen to Each Other, Open New Horizons", aimed to inspire its audiences to engineer a cultural bridge to overcome boundaries with an inclusive mindset.

The London edition of Vision China followed a recent phone conversation between President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. It underscored their consensus on the importance of communication and exchanges in developing bilateral relations.

During the phone call, Xi urged China and the UK to seek common ground while reserving differences and make their mutually beneficial cooperation even stronger. Burnham expressed the UK's readiness to advance bilateral cooperation across all fields and strengthen people-to-people exchanges.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, which hosted Thursday's event, said via video call that "by heeding this shared vision, China and the UK can also encourage the wider international community to bridge differences and work together".

Even though advancements in technology have made communication quicker and easier, "we still need closer exchanges to break preconceptions that often shape how we see one another", Qu said.

He called on everyone to see, meet and listen, in order to build better understanding through empathy and carry forward friendly relations. "We need to open new horizons for international cooperation and development, and make greater contributions to building a community with a shared future for humanity," Qu added.

Zhao Fei, charge d'affaires ad interim of the Chinese embassy in the UK, also gave a speech.

Ondrej Dostal, a member of the European Parliament representing Czechia, said that he has traveled to China several times and has seen how the nation has effectively become the world's most significant innovator and producer, which is more than mere technological prowess.

For many people in the West, "perceptions have simply failed to keep pace with reality" and there is an "enormous gap between the real China and perceptions of China", he said, referring to the intentional smearing of China in Western political discourse and media, which is designed to prevent engagement with the country and contain its rise.

"Therefore, a great deal of work is ahead of us in explaining China's vision to Europe and to the world," Dostal said, noting that Europe and China face "too many common challenges to allow misunderstandings to define our relationship".

"Only when we see China as it actually is can Europe formulate a China policy based on reality, rather than projection. Only then can we move beyond outdated stereotypes and manufactured threat narratives. Only then can we move beyond rivalry and finally embrace partnership — and, I hope, friendship," he added.

For renowned British Sinologist Frances Wood, mutual learning is not just a good-to-have, but also central to her 30 years of work at the British Library, which involves the conservation and digitization of some 7,000 complete manuscripts and 6,000 fragments of ancient scrolls from Dunhuang, Northwest China's Gansu province, dating from the third century to the 10th century.

She recalled how British and Chinese conservators worked together to repair the fragments, forging friendships and a family-like bond along the way.

"After decades of hard work, we had a lot to show for it — over 7,000 'new' manuscripts transformed from 'debris', and the publishing of a series of academic books," Wood said.

For Chen Junyan, winner of the second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2024, listening is not a metaphor. "It is what we do," she said, adding that music education in Shanghai and London taught her that listening helps broaden one's horizons.

She noted that one of her primary reasons for being a pianist is being able to play chamber music with instrumentalists from different countries.

"When I play ... I listen. They respond. I change. They change. Eventually, we create something that none of us on stage could have created alone," Chen said. "Meaningful cultural exchanges work very much in the same way. It is about being curious enough to listen, and being confident enough to allow what we hear to change us."

Mike Longhurst, a fellow of UK's Royal Photographic Society, said that he saw China through different lenses — as a photographer, a businessman, a tourist and a sustainability consultant — during his visits to different Chinese cities.

He captured on camera the Pudong skyline from the Bund in Shanghai; the majestic Great Wall in Beijing; the ancient Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, Shaanxi province; the giant pandas in Chengdu, Sichuan province; and the karst landscapes in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"But what I loved most is seeing the people. It is the people and their values that determine how all things are created, maintained and presented. … I see a togetherness that is missing in many cultures," Longhurst said.

"China is so vast that whatever I have seen can only be a very small part. I hope to go back again and see more," he added.

As China extended its visa-free policy to many European countries, including ordinary British passport holders in February, more people from the UK and Europe are traveling to China to see the country with their own eyes. Meanwhile, China remains one of the UK's most important sources of visa applicants.

The growth in people-to-people exchanges is even more pronounced in the field of education. Around 100,000 Chinese students visit the UK for higher studies each year.

Richard Trainor, provost of Rhodes Trust at the University of Oxford, said the 44 Chinese Rhodes scholars to date have become central to its scholar community, which encompasses continents and disciplines. "Chinese Rhodes scholars show that empathy, collaboration and courage are key attributes for 21st century leadership," said Trainor.

Michael Spence, president and provost of University College London, noted the contributions of UCL's 15,000 Chinese students and 30,000 Chinese alums, as well as the university's role in promoting Chinese language learning in public schools across England.

"Shared language is, of course, only one route to building trust among many. Yet for me, it most clearly underlines the values needed for trust and cooperation," Spence said, recalling his own Chinese language studies.

Listing some daunting global challenges — from fighting climate change to governing artificial intelligence — Spence said he does not see any "reasons for pessimism", because what British and Chinese students, scholars and researchers have already achieved through collaboration is "proof of what is possible".

The Vision China event also included a dialogue session, in which six young panelists from China, the UK and France exchanged views on economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and cultural interactions.

Through candid sharing of ideas, they explored their experiences and perspectives across borders, contributing to greater understanding and common ground and highlighting the role that young people play in shaping the future of China-UK and China-Europe relations.

Contact the writers at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn