Students play Ukrainian and Chinese music during the launch event of a course on the history of Chinese music at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 1, 2021. A course on the history of Chinese music kicked off for the first time at a Ukrainian university here on Monday. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua)

Students and faculty members attend the launch event of a course on the history of Chinese music at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 1, 2021. A course on the history of Chinese music kicked off for the first time at a Ukrainian university here on Monday. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua)

A course on the history of Chinese music kicked off for the first time at a Ukrainian university here on Monday.

Maksym Tymoshenko, president of the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, the first Ukrainian university to include such a subject in its curriculum, said at the launch event that the new course "is a great breakthrough at the national level, a great achievement for our countries."

The academy pays special attention to cooperation with China in all areas, Tymoshenko told Xinhua, adding that it has been a lasting and fruitful process to deepen the cultural ties between the two countries.

Valeriia Zharkova, head of the academy's World Music History Department, said exchanges between the West and the East through such courses are beneficial for students.

"Starting from this semester, a completely new course of Chinese music history is available in our academy, which has no analogs in Ukraine. You can see that such a course is taught in some Chinese universities, but also not everywhere. Our department of world music history believes that it is necessary to expand the material that we give to our students," Zharkova said.

More and more Chinese students have enrolled with the academy in recent years, Zharkova noted. "Not only the East comes to us to study, but we also want to know more about this ancient and very interesting culture."

Li Qing, a lecturer at the department, said the new course will introduce to the students the main historical stages in the development of Chinese music and its most striking examples, and help them better understand the development of culture in the modern world.

According to Tymoshenko, the academy has also launched a cooperation project with the city of Hengshui, in north China's Hebei Province, where Chinese students learn the Ukrainian language and music history.

"We are planning to visit China, Beijing, Hengshui, do concerts both online and live. We have just talked with our Chinese partners, and we plan to visit China this year," he added.