The 2006 Cross Culture Communication Forum in Beijing.	Cai Wu, minister of the State Council Information Office.	Cai Mingzhao, vice minister of the State Council Information Office.

The 2006 Beijing Cross Cultural Communication Forum was sponsored by the Center for International Communication Studies of the China International Publishing Group (CIPG). The forum invited people active in cultural exchange and communication, such Zhao Qizheng, former director of the State Council Information Office; Wu Jianmin, vice secretary-general of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of China Foreign Affairs University; Yu Qiuyu, famous scholar and writer; Shirley Yang, former vice president of General Motors; Yang Lan, chairperson of the Sun Culture Foundation; and Zhao Qiguang, dean of the Asian Language and Culture Department of Carlton University, to speak on the topic .

China's GDP for the year 2005 ranked fourth in the world, and supermarkets all over the globe are full of “made-in-China” goods. Along with its rapid economic development, China seeks to strengthen its communication with the world in a cultural sense. Yet, “Compared with China's favorable balance of trade, its foreign cultural exchanges and communication have a long way to go”, says Zhao Qizheng, former director of the State Council Information Office.

In 2004, China imported 4,000 book titles from the United States, but exported only 14, and also imported 2,000 book titles from Britain, but exported only 16. From 1999 to 2002, more than 280 Russian theatrical troupes performed in China, while only 30 Chinese theatrical troupes went to Russia. Between 2000 and 2004, China imported over 4,000 films and TV programs, but its exports were negligible.

“Nowadays people say there's ‘Chinese language fever' all over the world. But in the United States, more than one million senior high school students are learning French, compared to 20,000 Chinese learners,” says Zhao Qizheng.

Not Attractive?

More than 1,000 years ago, Chinese culture , along with its silk, tea and ceramics, entered Europe and other areas of Asia. It was after the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that China began to make more world cultural exchanges. The mystically rich China portrayed in The Travel of Marco Polo attracted merchants from Spain, Portugal, England, Italy, Denmark and Sweden, all of whom established commercial exchanges with China, and some sent envoys to establish diplomatic relations. The four great inventions of ancient China, namely, the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing, have all made significant contributions to world civilization. So what does it lack today?

The famous writer, Yu Qiuyu, visited the World Expo in Hannover, Germany in 2001 and that in Aichi, Japan in 2005. “Before the opening of the 2001 Hannover World Expo , the news media held a public opinion poll among local residents, its aim being to determine which hall was the most desirable, and China hall ranked second,” recalls Yu Qiuyu. But when the expo opened, foreign visitors came into and passed through the Chinese Hall in a matter of minutes without stopping. “We spent a great deal on the expo hall, and it was certainly large enough, but only few foreigners were able to appreciate it,” says Yu Qiuyu wryly. The same happened at the Japan Expo.

In Yu Qiuyu's opinion, the Germany hall was ingenious, that of France charmingly humorous, the Japanese exhibition was creative, and the South Korea hall had a cordial ambience. He reflects, “Compared with them, the China hall seemed dull, disorderly and conservative, with no opportunity to interact.”

Wu Jianmin, who served as the Chinese Ambassador to France for many years, believes that these shortcomings were a result of lacking communication skills. "My foreign friends have asked me on several occasions to recommend to them books on Chinese culture, but unfortunately I never found any that were suitable,” says Larry A. Samovar, professor of Communication, San Diego State University, continuing, “Cross cultural communication skills are vital in this age of globalization, as in future there will be an ever greater need to be able to communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds.”

Knowing Your Opponent

“In order to let others know you, you'd better get to know them first,” says Shirley Yang, who has engaged in the Sino-American cultural exchange for years. She successfully staged the Chinese Cultural Festival at the US Kennedy Center in 2005, which attracted nearly 400,000 visitors and was warmly commended by the American mainstream media. The New York Time quoted the comment by Elizabeth Economy, director of Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, that the cultural festival helped people to understand all the positive influences China has brought to the world. Hence, any such activity is helpful in presenting a more integrated image of China.

“The ‘people-oriented' principle is the basis of humanism that takes human nature, human sympathy and human rights as its basic tenet,” says Yu Qiuyu, adding, “we should expand Chinese culture in this respect.”

Care, however, must be taken to make sure that cultural differences are not misread. Professor Zhao Qiguang, from Carlton University of the United States, recalls that after the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, he witnessed students in Tianjin's Nankai University demonstrating in the foreign students' dormitory area. He remembered that it was dusk, and that a foreign student from some NATO country put his hand through the dormitory window and made a “V” sign. From the view of Chinese students, this was like pouring oil on the flames, as it intimated that Chinese people being killed merited the gesture for victory, and as such was clearly a provocation. Unbearably roused, everyone was about to storm the dormitory to remonstrate with the foreign student concerned. This body language nearly started a riot. Afterwards the student held a seminar attended by Chinese and foreign students. “At the meeting, I asked students how they interpreted the V gesture,” he said, “100 percent of the Chinese students believed it meant victory. American students, on the other hand, all thought it meant peace.”

Experts suggested that China invite overseas professionals to help it achieve the aim of exchanging and communicating effectively and accurately. They also advocated the involvement of foreign specialists in China's hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and also in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations, one of top-10 globe public relations firms, and the famous Weber Shandwick Worldwide have since been hired to lend a hand.

Experts also suggest that the Chinese people improve their self-cultivation. “Demonstrating China's rapid development and that it has an ancient civilization are not difficult, but knowing how to make it attractive is a real hard nut to crack,” says Yan Lan, continuing, “The Olympic Games give China the opportunity to display its sporting image and also constitute a multiple demonstration of its social civility. Chinese citizens' manners and behavior, especially their open and magnanimous spirit, are key to creating the appropriate `Chinese image'.”

Fortunately, China has already taken effective measures to comprehensively demonstrate modern China to the world. They include the establishment of Confucius Institutes all over the world, promotion of Chinese language learning and Chinese classics, and also encouraging overseas students to learn Shaolin kungfu . Compared to China's overall economic development and investment of manpower, material resources and financial power, however, promotion of Chinese cultural reconstruction has barely begun. But, as Li Haibo, editor-in-chief of China Today , says, "Cross cultural communication is long term, complex process.”