Global experts call for cultural understanding, exchange in China's Harbin
HARBIN (July 24): While speaking of his bond with Chinese culture, 69-year-old British translator David Ferguson hummed a passage from the Peking Opera classic Dingjun Mountain, recalling how Chinese art has profoundly transformed his life.
Ferguson, the honorary chief English editor of China's Foreign Languages Press, has lived and worked in China for nearly two decades.
Over the years, his engagement with Chinese culture has deepened both professionally and personally – his son, who came to China with him as a toddler, has studied Peking Opera for many years and can now perform a range of opera pieces.
He said he is proud of what his son has achieved, noting that his son's experiences have strengthened his belief that cultural exchange is his life's mission.
Ferguson was a recipient of the inaugural Orchid Awards in 2023. The awards were established to honor international friends who have contributed to fostering cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.
From July 11 to 14, Ferguson joined dozens of global scholars, cultural experts and awardees of this year's Orchid Awards on a visit to Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province famous for its unique music and cultural offerings.
To Ferguson, meaningful dialogue between civilisations often takes place not on grand stages, but during ordinary encounters – much like his bond with Peking Opera.
'We tend to associate cultural exchange first with fine arts, but ordinary people are in fact the protagonists of most cultural interactions,' he said.
He recalled a visit years ago to rural areas in northwest China's Gansu Province to learn about local poverty alleviation efforts.
Foreign experts visit the Space Museum of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on July 11, 2025. – Xinhua photo
In a village inhabited by the Dongxiang ethnic group, children welcomed him in a modest classroom by performing 'Auld Lang Syne' – a memory that remains vivid to this day.
'As a Scotsman, hearing the melody of my homeland in a Chinese village thousands of miles away brought tears to my eyes. It was the most precious gift I've received in China,' he said, noting that such moments of cultural exchange are more important than ever in a world troubled by conflicts and tensions.
For German medical scientist Thomas Rabe, who also participated in the Harbin tour, cultural exchange has been consolidating his family's long-standing friendship with China and will continue to contribute to international peace and friendship.
Rabe is the chairman of the John Rabe Communication Center, which is dedicated to commemorating his grandfather John Rabe for his role in protecting civilians during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, an atrocity committed during Japan's war of aggression against China.
Over the years, Thomas Rabe has dedicated himself to compiling over 20 volumes of wartime diaries written by his grandfather.
He has donated thousands of pages of the original manuscripts to Chinese authorities and Unesco.
These diaries have become invaluable historical resources for research on the Nanjing Massacre.
Rabe also shared with Xinhua how a China-German medical cooperation project he helped launch at Capital Medical University in Beijing enabled a Chinese cancer patient to give birth to two healthy children.
For his contributions to cultural and scientific exchanges, Rabe was awarded the Friendship Envoy Award at the second Orchid Awards earlier this month.
'For my family, China has been, is, and will always remain our second homeland,' he said.
Guo Weimin, president of the China Public Relations Association and deputy chair of this year's Orchid Awards expert committee, emphasised that cultural exchange is a vital force for connecting civilisations and advancing the development of human society.
'Visionary individuals from around the world, including the Orchid Awards honorees and nominees, have made outstanding contributions to international cultural dialogue and mutual learning among civilisations,' Guo said.
'Their efforts inspire confidence in our shared pursuit of peace and common development.' – Xinhua China cultural understanding global experts Harbin Xinhua
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Jess Lee's folk ballad wins over judges
Compiled by FAZLEENA AZIZ and R. ARAVINTHAN MALAYSIAN singer Jess Lee Kar Wei (pic) continues to make waves in the Chinese reality singing competition Singer, clinching second place in the latest episode, up from third the week before, China Press reported. Lee, 37, made the bold decision to perform Guang Liang, one of the theme songs in the 2021 documentary The Forbidden City. A tragic ballad about the fall of China's Ming Dynasty, the song requires vocal techniques unique to Peking opera. To perfect her rendition of the song, Lee stayed in Changsha city just so she could study Peking opera performers. Lee explained that she chose the song due to her love for folk music. 'They celebrate life and praise its beauty. Folk music is sung with a smile. It's a transmission of both culture and energy.' She said her vocal coach was trained in China and brought traditional Chinese culture to Malaysia. 'She was the one who recommended that I sing Guang Liang.' Lee's gamble paid off as she was given the second highest marks among all the contestants last week. This means Lee will remain on the show for another week where she will compete for a place in the grand finale. > Archaeologists studying the ancient terracotta warriors in China's Shanxi province discovered fingerprints belonging to children on the statues, challenging the long-held belief that only adult males were hired as artisans, Sin Chew Daily reported. The team of researchers documented some 100 fingerprints on the terracotta warriors left inside the mausoleum belonging to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, more than 2,200 years ago. The archaeologists used information from police fingerprint databases and combined them with skeletal archaeology to infer the gender of a fingerprint with accuracy exceeding 90%. While most of the fingerprints belonged to adult male artisans, three were believed to come from minors around 16 years old. However, experts are debating if the fingerprints were left there deliberately or as a signature by an artisan to indicate that the statue had passed quality control. (The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
New Taiwan TV show imagines China invasion
TAIPEI: A new Taiwanese television series that imagines the run-up to a Chinese invasion is getting rave reviews from viewers, who said the first programme featuring the sensitive topic is a wake-up call for the public facing heightened Chinese military threat. In the show, Zero Day Attack, a Chinese war plane goes missing near Taiwan. China then sends swarms of military boats and planes for a blockade as Taiwan goes on a war footing. Panic ensues on the streets of Taipei. At viewings here last week, attendees have included top United States diplomat in Taiwan Raymond Greene, who is director of the American Institute in Taiwan, and Taiwanese tycoon Robert Tsao, a strident critic of Beijing. The series is set to premiere on Aug 2 in Taiwan, followed by its Japanese release on Amazon Prime Video. "Presenting such a situation (of conflict) can lead to more discussion about what we should do if it really turns into reality one day," said Blair Yeh, a 35-year-old engineer, after watching the first episode in the Taipei premiere last week. The premise of Zero Day Attack is a topic that has for years been considered too sensitive for many Taiwan filmmakers and television show creators, who fear losing access to the lucrative Chinese entertainment market. More than half of the show's crew asked to remain anonymous on the crew list and some people, including a director, pulled out of the production at the last minute, said its showrunner Cheng Hsin Mei. But as China steps up military threats, including at least six rounds of major war games in the past five years and daily military activities close to Taiwan, the upcoming drama confronts the fear by setting the 10-episode series around a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The drama focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face in the days leading up to a Chinese attack, including a global financial collapse, the activation of Chinese sleeper agents and panicked residents trying to flee the island. "Without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan," the actor who plays a fictional Taiwan president says in a televised speech, urging unity after declaring war on China, in the show's trailer. The live broadcast then gets abruptly cut off, replaced by a feed of a Chinese state television anchor calling for Taiwanese to surrender and to report "hidden pro-independence activists" to Chinese soldiers after their landing in Taiwan.
Borneo Post
3 hours ago
- Borneo Post
Beyond babysitting: How China's grandparents are reinventing retirement
Graduates perform during the graduation ceremony at Xinjiang Open University for Seniors in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 27, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) BEIJING (July 29): With her silver hair neatly styled and a pearl necklace resting against a soft yellow blouse, Yin Song embodies the elegance of the pianist she's always been. But the large studio headphones over her ears and the video camera in front of her suggest something different. At 74, 'Grandma Piano,' as her online fans affectionately call her, now spends her time guiding audiences through the world of anime and video game music, sharing the same depth of feeling she once brought to Mozart and Chopin. A lifelong musician, Yin opened her social media account in 2022 to share her expertise. It wasn't until she analyzed the music from the hit game 'Black Myth: Wukong' that her channel suddenly took off. The 'grandinfluencer' now has more than 600,000 followers on the video-sharing platform Bilibili. For Yin, the experience has been unexpectedly transformative. 'We used to lead the young,' she said. 'Now they lead us, and I want to keep running alongside them,' embracing new ideas and ways of connecting. Yin's story reflects a subtle yet telling cultural shift. In a country where grandparents have long been expected to devote their retirement years to caring for grandchildren, an increasing number of older Chinese are quietly rewriting the script. They are embracing new roles as content creators, community volunteers, entrepreneurs, and part-time professionals. For many, retirement is no longer a retreat, but a second act. Yin is far from alone. By the end of 2024, over 30 million users aged 60 or above were logging in monthly on Xiaohongshu, one of China's most popular social media platforms. In just two years, the number of senior content creators has tripled, generating more than 100 million posts. These older digital pioneers are challenging long-held stereotypes from grandmothers redefining fashion, to retired professors distilling philosophy into viral short videos, and rural elders sharing their pastoral lives. Digital engagement is only part of the story. Many seniors are also returning to work, seeking purpose beyond their pensions. Zhu Honghua, 70, a former Beijing accountant enjoyed a comfortable monthly pension of around 8,500 yuan (about 1,191 U.S. dollars) and a leisurely life with her husband after retirement. But the routine began to wear thin. When a business contact invited Zhu back to accounting, she jumped at the chance. 'It's not just about the money,' she said. 'Having something meaningful to do every day is its own reward.' Zhu's case is hardly an outlier. A growing body of data suggests that many older Chinese are not only willing but eager to return to work. A 2023 survey by the China Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics found that 45 percent of those aged between 60 and 69 expressed a desire to remain in or reenter the workforce. Research from the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences revealed similar patterns: 62.1 percent of people aged 60 to 65 said they wanted to keep working, while among those approaching retirement, aged 55 to 59, the figure was even higher, at 72.7 percent. While motivations vary, nearly half of those seeking post-retirement work cited a need for purpose, according to a 2022 report on senior reemployment. Others aimed to apply their skills or chase new ambitions. A third said they hoped to ease financial pressure or afford a better quality of life. The surge of interest in post-retirement work coincides with China's rapidly aging population. By the end of 2024, more than 310 million Chinese citizens were aged 60 or older, about 22 percent of the population. That share is expected to surpass 30 percent by 2035, when the number of seniors is projected to top 400 million. As waves of older workers reach retirement age over the coming years, policymakers and experts see both a warning and an opportunity. With educational attainment on the rise, China's older adults are seen not only as dependents, but as a vast reservoir of experience, skills and resources that could help offset the country's shrinking working-age population. China has taken steps to harness the power of its aging population. In its recent move, the government issued new guidelines this May, calling for more flexible and personalized job opportunities tailored to older adults, while pledging to dismantle outdated regulations that stand in their way. Local governments have moved quickly to implement the changes, building registries of senior talent, expanding employment services for retirees, and cultivating specialized human resource agencies to serve the growing 'silver economy.' Signs of change are beginning to emerge in the labor market. Retirees with backgrounds in engineering, medicine, education and skilled trades are returning as consultants, trainers or part-time specialists, lending decades of experience to fields in need. 'China has entered an aging society,' said Lu Jiehua, a sociology professor at Peking University. 'Tapping into older human resources isn't just about addressing demographic pressure. It's a crucial strategy for extending the country's demographic dividend.' – Xinhua China elderly music performance retirement
