[Photo by Yoo Dae-gil = dbeorlf123@]
China’s publicity chief Liu Qibao called for active cultural exchanges between Beijing and Seoul Sunday as he inspected a theater screening Chinese films exclusively for the first time in South Korea.
Chinese students and South Korean officials greeted Liu when he arrived in the Dongyang Art Center which opened a theater to screen Chinese films on April 1 in a project sponsored by the Seoul city government.
Liu, who arrived in South Korea on Friday for a four-day visit, praised the theater for playing a key role in promoting Sino-Korean cultural exchanges and said it would be useful to publicize Chinese culture and films especially among young Korean people and students.
"I will try to invigorate cultural exchanges between China and South Korea" by allowing the joint production of more films between the two countries, he said through an interpreter.
The theater has screened old and new Chinese films such as "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. It vowed to screen more films at the theater and develop it as the center for spreading Chinese culture.
Separately, Liu visited the main office of CJ E&M, South Korea's major entertainment and media contents company, in western Seoul to see its advanced technology, know-how and facilities used to produce dramas, movies and K-pop music.
CJ E&M chiarman Son Kyung-sik suggested his company would step up ties and exchanges with Chinese partners to develop high-quality cultural contents together and disseminate them in the global market.
The company has been at the front of spreading South Korea's pop culture wave "Hallyu" in China and other countries.
Later in the day, Liu made a keynote speech in Seoul's Korea University, the site for an academic forum attended by scholars from China, South Korea and Japan to discuss the future of China.
China's publicity chief Liu Qibao makes a keynote speech at an academic forum in Korea University.[Photo by Yoo Dae-gil = dbeorlf123@]
Aju News Park Se-jin and Lim Chang-won
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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