BEIJING, May 10, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- In Budapest,
capital of East European country Hungary, signs, characters and cultural
elements of the far Asian country of China are easily spotted as the China Cultural
Center in the city aims to help more Hungarian people learn about
China and Chinese
culture.
Since many people overseas prefer to participate in offline
activities, "overseas Chinese cultural centers can help local
people empathize and find commonality with China and Chinese people through host
dialogues, public lectures and cultural promotion events,"
Jin Hao, director of the China
Cultural Center in Budapest, told
the Global Times on Wednesday.
"Culture is a channel to help eliminate misunderstanding and
enhance mutual understanding, with the goal of narrowing the
distance between Chinese and foreign people."
In December, the center hosted an event at Hungary's Robert Capa Contemporary Photography
Center called "China Through the Eyes of Hungarian Photographers"
together with the Association of Hungarian Photographers (MFSZ),
the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center and the Wink
International Cultural Arts and Sports Association, during which a
group of Hungarian photographers shared how their trips to
China surpassed all
expectations.
Recalling their visit to China in
September, MFSZ President Zsolt
Hamarits expressed overwhelming awe at the sheer richness of
Chinese culture.
"I arrived in a dream world. I'm still dreaming about this journey.
It's hard to put into words how amazing it felt," he said, noting
that if he could, he would return to China "tomorrow."
Mutual visits, exchanges
One of the photographers is Zsolt Olaf
Szamody, former president of MFSZ who had visited
China in 2008 when he participated
in the Pingyao International Photography Festival.
"At that time, China was exotic
and strange to me," he said.
"But now, everybody knows that China alone in the world is capable
of such a spectacular and special development, be it the
architecture or public transport, or communication."
He and other six photographers captured natural scenes, the vibrant
social life and the bustling economy of Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu
Province, signifying the resilience of these
cities.
Similar events have helped more people understand China, allowing the friendship between
Hungarian and Chinese people grow stronger, and further developing
cultural connections as well.
"One of our main tasks is to get people overseas, including
Hungarians, to visit China as much
as possible," Jin said, adding that he found that they had limited
access to accurate and comprehensive information about
China.
The information they receive is basically what other media wants
them to see and read, and there is a "filter" for this information.
Some of them still had an impression about China from a few decades ago, and they didn't
have the chance to learn about the development of China, especially modern
China.
"We have been working hard to create opportunities for mutual
visits and exchanges, so that overseas people can experience
Chinese culture through visits."
"Freedom and love are dear to me; my life I give, sweet love, for
thee, yet love I give for liberty." This is probably one of the
most well-known foreign poems in China, the work of the revolutionary poet
Sándor Petofi brought hope and power to the Chinese people during
turbulent times in the early 1900s. Chinese great literati
Lu Xun helped promote the poem to
encourage more people at that time.
Even today, a statue of Petofi still stands in the square in front
of the Lu Xun Museum in Shanghai,
reminding millions of Chinese visitors of the traditional
friendship between China and
Hungary.
As 2023 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the famous
Hungarian poet, the China Cultural Center in Budapest has reached out to various cultural
institutions in China and
Hungary to hold a number of
cultural exchanges activities in the two countries with theme of
"Petofi in China."
A great responsibility
At the same time, the Chinese Cultural Center also realized that
"helping Hungarian young people, especially Generation Z, fall in
love with Chinese culture, learn more about Chinese culture, and
understand contemporary China is a
relatively big topic, and we feel that we have a great
responsibility."
With the rise of the internet age, more and more Chinese cultural
products like mobile games, online novels and streaming series have
provided unexpected opportunities for the promotion of Chinese
culture among younger groups.
According to the China Culture Center in Budapest, young Hungarian people love Chinese
dramas and fantasy series like A Dream of Splendor starring Chinese
actress Liu Yifei, with some fan
groups proactively creating Hungarian subtitles for these shows.
They like wearing traditional Chinese clothing and cosplaying
figures in the popular Chinese video game Genshin Impact.
Levente Horváth, director of the Eurasia Center of John von Neumann
University and chief advisor to the governor of the Central Bank of
Hungary, said that educational and
cultural cooperation plays an important role in the relations
between the two countries.
He noted that in order to promote cooperation in all areas, it is
important to get to know the culture and traditions of other
countries, and thereby their way of thinking.
"It is through this action that quality cooperation between
Hungary and China can be achieved. But it is also true in
the relations of all other countries that we have to know and
understand the other party. So that is why one of the five pillars
of the Belt and Road Initiative is the people-to-people
cooperation," he added.
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SOURCE Global Times