Exploring the Potential to Expand Cultural Exchange： A Review of CICA＇s Past Work

China International Cultural Association （CICA） is a nationwide social group under the direct guidance and support of Chinese Ministry of Culture. Since its founding on July 3, 1986, CICA aims to enhance understanding and friendship between Chinese people and people of the rest of the world and has conducted nearly one thousand exchange events and projects, including performing arts, design arts, publication, personnel exchange as well as various kinds of multi-lateral exchange. Those events and projects have remarkably enriched dimension of non-government exchange between China and other countries.     

The Art of Paper Cutting：Living Fossils of Chinese Civilization

Paper cut is one of the most distinctive folk arts that Chinese women have created and developed over the sweep of Chinese history. The art of paper cutting, originating from the pre-history era and dubbed as ＂living fossils of Chinese civilization＂, has been carried forward for hundreds of years in the vast countryside of China and survived with great vitality until today.     

Performing Arts Market: Abandon Extravagancy,Back to Normal简

At the end of 2012, the Chinese Government issued the Eight Provisions on how to improve the Party＇s general work methods and relations. 117 early August 2013, .five departments, including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee issued a joint statement on abandoning extravagancy and advocating thrift on festival gala, which brought a ＂storm＂ to Chinese performing arts market. The number of the government-sponsored festival gala and large-scale performances has dropped sharply. These policies are welcomed and praised by the masses. What kind of influence did 01ese policies bring to the Chinese performing arts markets as well as the art troupes？ How did relevant institutions respond to it？ What is the right direction of Chinese per t~rmance arts ＇future development？ ... Recently, the People＇s Daily published a series on ＂Focusing on Performing Arts＂, which may offer some reference value for art troupes to catch the development trend.     

China Hosts Young Overseas Sinologists

Sinology is an academic discipline on the study of China, Chinese people and Chinese culture. Today, the scope of sinology has widened extensively to establish itself as a knowledge system on the study of Chinese philosophy, history, language, literature, arts, politics, economy and society. Sinology development relies on sinologists and translators who play an indispensible role in helping the rest of the world know more about China.     

Ancient Southern Music Still Lingers Today

The Arts Center for Han-and-Tang Imperial Music ＆ Dance, a Taiwan-based company promoting Chinese traditional arts, has dedicated itself to the promotion of ancient Chinese Southern Music and palace dance. With its steadfast pursuit of artistic perfection, the company has been recognized as a world-class organization presenting elegant and classical music and dance of ancient China.     

Son of Famous Father Finds Artistic Freedom

Artist and photographer Li Xiaoke grew up looking to his father as a role model. But ,growing up in the shadow of the great modem master of traditional Chinese landscape ink and water painting, brought its own particular burden. Now in his sixties, the son has established his own place in the Chinese world of fine arts and photography, and created his own artistic vision.[第一段]     

Chinese Arts to Be Showcased in Belgium

Europalia.China, a four-month arts festival to be opened in Belgium in October, 2008, will feature more than one hundred projects involving such diverse forms of arts as performing arts, literature, exhibition and film. Some one thousand Chinese artists from Mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan will bring fascinating art galas to Belgian audiences with their unique and outstanding performances of Chinese styles.     

Paper Cuts and Wood-Carved Lattice Windows

Folk arts, considered as living fossils of national culture, reflect ideas, religious beliefs, customs and traditions of a nation. Chinese paper cuts and woodcarved lattice windows are unique folk art expressions that have survived for more than thousands of years and embody national spirits, exquisitecraftsmanship and rich and diverse cultural implications. These two classical forms of folk arts originated from openwork ornaments made from gold and silver foils, silk fabrics and tree leaves that date back to the Shang Dynasly （1600 BC-1100 BC）. Traditional wood-carved lattice windows are recognized as comprising parts of Chinese historic buildings, with fine designs, sophisticated patterns and cultural richness.     

Chinese Folk Arts Showcased in Olympic Village

The 29th summer Olympiad, extolled as ＂truly exceptional＂ by IOC President Jacques Rogge, has left over tremendous legacy to Beijing, in particular, its perfect combination of sports and culture. The showcases of Chinese folk arts in the Olympic Village, while amazing the whole world with their vitality and creativity, have boosted Chinese people＇s awareness of the protection of Chinese intangible cultural heritage which bears unique historical and aesthetic values     

Tianjin＇s Spring Festival Traditions Hog Global Spotlight

The city of Tianjin, with its history dating back to 600 years, sees a variety of folk arts and traditions. In recent years, tremendous efforts have been made by the government and private organizations alike to restore and revitalize those valuable folldores, such as revamping the Curio Street, building museums on folk arts and traditions, rebuilding the Drum Tower and more. Now during the Spring Festival （Chinese lunar New Year）, the May First seven-day break and the National Day holiday, showcases of time-honored traditions and folk arts, such as diabolo spinning, sugar painting making, flour doll maMng and tea soup shows, are presented in the Curio Street and the Drum Tower shopping street to attract tourists from home and abroad. The Curio Street is also classified as four-star national-level tourist destination. According to incomplete statistics, during the 2007 Spring Festival, the city of Tianjin received dozens of tourist groups from the US, Germany, France, lapan and more.[第一段]     

China Cultural Center Inaugurated in Madrid

China Cultural Center in Madrid is located in the downtown of Madrid, enjoying very convenient transportation. In the center there are exhibition halls, multi-purpose halls, library, martial arts dance classroom, culinary classroom and language classroom. Since its trial operation in October 2012, over 60 exhibitions, pelformances, film screenings and other activities have been presented, attracting tens of thousands of local people. The Chinese language and martial arts courses were greatly welcomed by the locals as well.     

Passion and Greatness： Miao Mo＇s Traditional Chinese Painting

Miao Mo is an accomplished painter nurtured in the time-honored artistic, tradition of Xi＇an, an ancient capital which witnessed heydays of the Chinese civilization. He showed strong interest in painting in his childhood and received academic training in fine arts in his teen years. In 1962, Miao pursued further training in the advanced course offered by the studio of traditional Chinese painting under the Artists Association of Shaanxi Province. In this three-year training program, Miao made remarkable progress in painting skills and deepened his understanding of the traditions and principles of Chinese painting, thanks to the mentorship of master Zhao Wangyun, founder of Chang＇an School of Painting, as well as the guidance of other prestigious artists like Shi Lu, He Haixia and Fang Jizhong.     

Government Sets up the Stage and Enterprises Put on the ShowSeminar on Introducing Chinese PerformiNg Arts to the US

The Seminar on Introducing Chinese Performing Arts to the US sponsored by the Bureau for External Cultural Relationsof Ministry of Culture was held in Beijing. It was attended by representatives of such leading cultural institutions as China National Peking Opera Company, National Theatre of China, China Arts andEntertainment Group and heads of many famous performing arts companies. Representatives of this seminar remarked that the content of this meeting was concrete, practical and inspiring.This is a move by the Ministry of Culture to encourage and support Chinese culture to go abroad under the strategy of＂Chinese culture going global＂.     

＂Meet in Beijing＂ Arts Festival：Grand Gala for the People

The＂Meet in Beijing＂Arts Festival is an annual large-scale international festival aimed at showcasing the best of arts from across the globe and promoting friendship among people worldwide. From April 28 to May 27,the one-month-long sixth session of the festival took place in the capital cith of China,embracing some 50 outstanding arts troupes and exhibitions from more than 20 countries and regions,such as Mexico,Canada,Bahamas,Russia,Belgium,the United States,New Zealand,Sweden,Peru,South Africa ,Israel as well as East Asia.Together with Chinese colleagues,foreign artists and performers manifested the theme of friendship,harmony and communication with their superb performances or artworks.     

South Tunes Linger in Czech Republic

China is an old nation enjoying five thousand years of splendid civilization. But Chinese culture remains abstract and mysterious to many foreigners today. They know little about Chinese culture, partly because original cultural products or brands as well as suitable marketing mechanisms have yet to be developed. Take an example of performing arts. China has rich traditions in theatre, dance, music and acrobatics. But foreign audiences know virtually nothing about Chinese masterpieces in the…     

Significant History Depicted in Bronze Statues

The State Fine Arts Creation Program on Subjects of Significant History, co-launched by the Ministry of Cu ture and the M n stry of F nance, a ms tocater to increasing demands on culture and arts and cultivate and promote the national spirit of Chinese people by creating outstanding works of fine arts that bear both artistic appeal and the spirit of the time. This program was inaugurated in early 2005 and the final list was released in 2007, with 115 entries including 40 traditional Chinese paintings, 55 oil paintings and 20 sculptures.     

EXHIBITIONS ＆ EVENTS

11^th Asia Arts Festival Held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia
From August 18 to 26, the 11^th Asia Arts Festival was held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. With the theme of ＂Blessing for the Grassland and Good Fortune for Asia＂, the festival this year saw such major events as the roundtable meeting for Asian cultural ministers, exhibitions, performances and showcases of intangible cultural heritage of Chinese ethnic minorities, The festival has helped promote friendship and cooperation among different countries of Asia and better showcase distinctive Chinese ethnic arts to the rest of Asia.     

THEVALUEBEYONDTHE VALUABLES--A glinpse of master Painter Qi Baishi

If there is any miracle in the modern fine affs history of China, you can＇t point anyone but him. His name is Qi Baishi who lived through 1864 to 1957 and was a benchmark of Chinesefine arts and a great man of his time. He used to be a carpenter, but because of his persistence on the exploration of art, he climbed onto the peak of Chinese fine arts and eventually became a world renowned Chinese painting master.