French Ambassador to China Bertrand Lortholary speaks at a press conference on the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism in 2024 in Beijing on January 4, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of French Embassy in China

A brief meeting about the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism in 2024, an all-round humani-ty exchange agenda co-launched by the two countries, was held at the Palace Museum in Beijing on Thursday. The meeting has unveiled a variety of upcoming activities covering fields such as cultural legacy and arts. 

The meeting's venue, the Palace Museum, was chosen for a reason. Starting from April 1, an art show co-planned by the museum and the Palace of Versailles in Paris, will debut on site. A pocket watch that witnessed the "friendship" between France's King Louis XIV and the Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) of China's Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) will be displayed among 181 other artifacts. 

No matter if it is fine art ceramics, paintings, medical books or early scientific devices, these rare objects will introduce visitors to the cultural interactions that took place between the two countries dating back to the second half of the 17th century through the 18th century. 

Pointing to how Chinese culture inspired French thinkers during the Renaissance as an example, Wang Xudong, the director of the Palace Museum, said that this mutual appreciation continues to today and has particularly enhanced the exchanges in the cultural legacy field. 

Compared to fields such as painting, music and film, "cultural legacy" is a rather novel field in China-France exchanges, Jiang Xiaoyang, an international cultural policy researcher, told the Global Times. Jiang said that the two countries' collaborations in areas like legacy conservation will "inspire the world to see how the growth of humanity is independent from different cultural contexts."

"In recent years, we have found paths such as exchanging collections, discussing relic's conservation, co-launching academic projects and training museums talents with France," Wang emphasized. 

Other than the cultural legacy sector, the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism program will offer shows in other fields such as performance art, literature, dance, film and the "art of AR technology," Nicolas Pillerel, minister counselor for culture, education and scientific affairs at the French Embassy in China, said at the event. 

On January 25, French composer Charles Gounod's classic Romeo and Juliet will be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Moving from September to November, an immersive augmented reality (AR) exhibition depicting the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris will also be shown in China. The AR show is dedicated to the iconic French landmark, which is scheduled to reopen by the end of 2024 after experiencing a massive fire in 2019. 

Besides shows held in China, more than 10 programs will be launched in France to bring authentic Chinese culture to locals in 2024. 

More than 20 Tang Dynasty (618-907) treasures will be selected by China's National Cultural Heritage Administration and then exhibited at the Guimet Museum in France in November.

Bertrand Lortholary, the French Ambassador to China, said at the event that the main gist of the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism in 2024 is to showcase the "fruitful achievements" and "vitality" of the cultural and human exchanges between the two countries. 

The ambassador also noted that the two countries' cultural exchanges can "accentuate the shared collaborative mind-set" between the two countries against the backdrop of the "incredible" year of 2024.  

The year 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relations. 

Prior to the announcement of the "cultural and tourism" agenda, in November 2023, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna achieved the consensus to comprehensively deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges by co-launching the 6th meeting of the China-France high-level dialogue mechanism. 

A logo for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France and the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism was revealed. 

"Over the past 60 years, the people-to-people exchanges between China and France, especially cultural exchanges, have become a cornerstone for the two countries' cooperation," Lortholary emphasized.