Culturally bridging Denmark and Guangzhou
On August 16, the Danish Cultural Institute’s Headquarters in Copenhagen (DCI) had the pleasure of hosting a delegation from Guangzhou City, capital of the region Guangdong, China, headed by Mr. Sun Zhu 孙柱, Deputy Secretary of Guangzhou Communist Youth League and representative of Guangzhou City Youth Cultural Palace. The two parties discussed common points of interest as well as future prospects for collaboration within the field of culture, music, and education.
The delegation was scheduled to visit both Sweden and Denmark during the course of their 8 days trip with the purpose of strengthening cultural exchange with the city of Guangzhou. Before arriving at DCI, the delegation paid a visit to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where they partook in workshops and classes arranged by the academy.
During the meeting, the two parties presented to each other their organizations, their work, and visions, and points of common interest between the two parties were put forward, such as their passion to broaden the minds of young people and jointly developing capacities. Goals, which serve to benefit both Denmark and China. Working with the youth of Guangzhou at the very center, Mr. Sun hopes to provide the youth of Guangzhou with more opportunities to go abroad, broaden their horizons, and to experience different cultures and cultures of learning. Especially, he pointed out, for elementary and middle school students, who “think that Danish music is really cool, and also have taken a liking to the Danish learning environment”. For example, in 2016 Danish folk band Phoenix performed at schools in Guangzhou with local musician Sang Ka, playing guzheng, a form of traditional zither – a collaboration initiated by the Danish Cultural Center in Beijing.
Secretary General of the Danish Cultural Institute, Mr. Michael Metz Mørch, shared the aims and wishes of DCI, pointing to the prominence which DCI’s work with China holds in this context. Moreover, in spite of the noticeable difference in scale – there are more than twice the amount of citizens in the city of Guangzhou alone than in all of Denmark – there is a tremendous amount of collaboration and cultural exchange taking place between the two countries.
During the talk between the two parties, Mr. Sun emphasized an important aspect of the cultural work carried out in the city of Guangzhou through 广州市青年文化宫 – or the Guangzhou Youth Cultural Palace in the City of Guangzhou, as one might translate it in English. The ‘Palace’ serves as an institution which is mainly engaged in public work for the youth in society, such as education and culture, and which aims at ensuring healthy growth and development for the youth of Guangzhou. It does so by bringing together youth of all ages and offering a place for learning, growing, realizing one’s full potential, and enjoying oneself. Therefore, it aims at meeting the demands for culture, leisure and entertainment of teenagers and young people – for example, the ‘Palace’ has its own cinema. Furthermore, the ‘Palace’ motivates the youth to participate in society.
While different projects and collaborations have already been carried out between Denmark and Guangzhou city, the delegation as well as DCI hope to strengthen the cooperation and expand the areas of collaboration beyond the fields of music and culture in the future.