Photo: Courtesy of China's Korean Cultural Center

A China-South Korean painting and calligraphy exhibition kicked off at Beijing's Korean Cultural Center on Thursday to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the center's establishment and to promote cultural communication between the two countries during 2021's China-S.Korea Cultural Exchange Year.

The exhibition, themed on the revival of life, includes ink wash paintings and calligraphy works from five famous Chinese artists and four prestigious South Korean artists. It is scheduled to run until August 14. 

South Korean Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung said at the opening ceremony that the theme marks a new opening as the center was closed for a year due to the outbreak of COVID-19. 

Qiu Guohong, former Chinese ambassador to South Korea, said that the exhibition is a good beginning for the China-S.Korea Cultural Exchange Year and holds great significance against the backdrop of the global pandemic. 

He affirmed that China and South Korea made significant cooperation in pandemic prevention and control in 2020 and has reached a lot of agreements in numerous fields such as climate change and cross-border crime. 

"I believe that the two countries' relationship will continue to shine in the next 30 years," he said.

Li Xikui, vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, added that more cultural events will be held between the two countries in 2022, the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and South Korea.

The Korean Cultural Center in China was built in 1993, a year after the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and South Korea and was opened to public in Beijing in 2007. In the past 14 years, the number of Korean language students and Korean culture courses offered by the Cultural Center reached 28,500. The center holds more than 60 events every year and has held more than 970 cultural events so far and received more than 1.05 million visitors since it opened.

Global Times