Ni hao/hello/guten tag — Initiative aims to raise international profile
Promoting its cultural influence abroad has been a top priority of Hunan in recent years, local officials said.
The province assisted exportoriented cultural companies and supported them to increase exports and trade in services of publications, television programs and artistic performances. It helps the companies to actively participate in international cultural market competitions via international cooperation.
Statistics showed the province’s cultural imports and exports amounted to more than $2.29 billion in 2017, a year-on-year rise of 73 percent. The amount of exports was about $2.25 billion, a year-onyear increase of 71.5 percent.
Enterprises in the province have explored new channels and modes for expanding overseas. Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group invested in and became a shareholder of Frankfurter Buchmesse’s online intellectual property transaction platform.
The international channel of the Hunan Broadcasting System has exported its high definition signals and the number of its overseas users is nearly 4 million.
Hunan’s cultural companies are becoming more prominent overseas, a primary example being China South Publishing and Media Group, which hopes to publish books read by children from China and other countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Since 2014, Hunan’s publicity videos have been seen by more and more foreigners, local officials said.
At a Sino-Bulgarian friendship get-together held in Bulgaria on Nov 2, Cai Zhenhong, head of the Hunan publicity department, said Yueyang in Hunan became a sister city with Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora as early as in 1994; he hopes the activity will further solidify friendship between Hunan and Bulgaria.
In 2016, the acrobatics show Dream Trip by Hunan Performance Group performed more than 100 times in 70-plus cities in Canada and the United States.
Changsha, capital city of Hunan, is raising its profile on the world stage by holding diverse international activities, local media reported.
It hosted the 2018 Changsha Media Arts Festival and International Youth Forum on Creativity and Heritage Along the Silk Road from May 20 to 23 to strengthen its communications with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
At the forum, officials from UNESCO and more than 70 youth representatives from countries involved in the initiative took part in deep and meaningful discussions about the world’s future, cultural integration and communications and young people’s responsibilities.