[Courtesy of Dongyang Art Center]
South Korea's first Chinese film theater opened Friday at an art district in Seoul to screen old and new Chinese films.
The theater is being jointly run by Seoul's Jongno district office and the Chinese Cultural Center in South Korea at a 220-seat screening room of the Dongyang Arts Center.
The first films screened on Friday were "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou who won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988, and "Meet Miss Anxiety," a 2014 Chinese film directed by South Korea's Kwak Jae-yong.
The Chinese cultural center offers more than two films a month at no charge. New films will be screened for up to 6,000 won (5.24 US dollars).
The project has been sponsored by the Seoul city government to promote cultural exchanges between the two countries. Dongyang will also host various China-related cultural programs.
Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign ministry said Friday that Seoul and Beijing have agreed to carry out 69 cultural projects this year such as academic seminars, concerts and a joint study of pandas.
A pair of Chinese giant pandas arrived in South Korea in early March to live at Samsung Everland's amusement park. South Korea became the 14th country to have the endangered species.
Beijing has agreed to send them to Seoul following Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to South Korea in 2014. China has a tradition of sending pandas to foreign countries as a gesture of friendship.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
