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The Yin and Yang of Cultural Exchange
21/11/07
The Times
21 November 2007
A survey commissioned by HSBC and published in September reveals a surprising lack of understanding between British and Chinese people about their respective cultures.
According to the research carried out in July and August, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of Chinese respondents couldn’t name Gordon Brown as the current British Prime Minister, whereas only 7 per cent of UK respondents correctly identified Hu Jintao as President of China.
Other results showed that Chairman Mao was the public figure most closely associated with China by more than half (54 per cent) of British people, while 26 per cent of UK respondents, when asked about popular culture, wrongly associated the Japanese art of sumo wrestling with China.
The 1,930 Chinese respondents seemed to have a wider knowledge of Britain’s popular culture, citing the royal family, David Beckham and Harry Potter as examples.
But few UK and Chinese citizens have experienced each other’s cultures at first hand. Only five per cent of UK and six per cent of Chinese respondents have visited China and Britain respectively.
“I’m not surprised by the results” says Simon Heale, the chief executive of CHINA NOW, the UK’s largest ever festival of Chinese culture, which will go live in February 2008 to coincide with the start of the Chinese New Year and continue to the end of July 2008 and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. “The vast majority of Britons still see China as a distant, mysterious country.”
With more than 800 events across the UK, this celebration of a dynamic and rapidly evolving nation will showcase the best aspects of modern Chinese society and culture, comprising a broad range of themes from cuisine and science to business, technology and education.
As well as major exhibitions of modern Chinese art and a season of contemporary Chinese dance at Sadler’s Wells, there will be community programmes in Yorkshire’s museums, a Hong Kong race day at Ascot and a nationwide tour by the Chinese State circus.
“There is a rising middle class of several hundred million people in China hungry for designer clothes, fridges, travel and technology. We want people to engage, understand and be ready to compete with a country undergoing dramatic social and economic change,” says Heale, who remembers looking across from Hong Kong to Shenzhen when it was a fishing village in the late 1970s – it is now an industrial city with a population of about five million.
The project has received support from both the British and Chinese governments but is funded by private business. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “I welcome China Now as a valuable and exciting idea to help bring our countries closer together and further develop and strengthen our relationship.”
As well as encouraging people to be better informed about Gordon Brown’s Chinese counterpart and his country, Heale would like for China Now to leave a legacy that continues beyond the exchange of the Olympic flag between the mayors of Beijing and London after the 2008 Games.
“To have encouraged 50 more schools to start teaching Mandarin would be an example of a sustainable result,” says Heale.
One of the festival highlights is the Victoria & Albert museum’s spring 2008 exhibition, China Design Now, which will be the first in the UK to explore the impact of rapid economic development on architecture and design in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
China is now the world’s biggest construction site and is set to overtake the United States as the second biggest consumer of luxury goods after Japan. “There is truly a sense of design frenzy in China right now,” says Lauren Parker, curator of the V&A; exhibition.
Her co-curator Zhang Hongxing adds: “Design in China’s cities has changed beyond all recognition in the last two decades. This is a moment when you can start talking about things being designed in China, not just made in China.”
China Design Now is at the V&A1; from 15 March to 13 July 2008 (0207 942 2000; www.vam.ac.uk)
21 November 2007
A survey commissioned by HSBC and published in September reveals a surprising lack of understanding between British and Chinese people about their respective cultures.
According to the research carried out in July and August, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of Chinese respondents couldn’t name Gordon Brown as the current British Prime Minister, whereas only 7 per cent of UK respondents correctly identified Hu Jintao as President of China.
Other results showed that Chairman Mao was the public figure most closely associated with China by more than half (54 per cent) of British people, while 26 per cent of UK respondents, when asked about popular culture, wrongly associated the Japanese art of sumo wrestling with China.
The 1,930 Chinese respondents seemed to have a wider knowledge of Britain’s popular culture, citing the royal family, David Beckham and Harry Potter as examples.
But few UK and Chinese citizens have experienced each other’s cultures at first hand. Only five per cent of UK and six per cent of Chinese respondents have visited China and Britain respectively.
“I’m not surprised by the results” says Simon Heale, the chief executive of CHINA NOW, the UK’s largest ever festival of Chinese culture, which will go live in February 2008 to coincide with the start of the Chinese New Year and continue to the end of July 2008 and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. “The vast majority of Britons still see China as a distant, mysterious country.”
With more than 800 events across the UK, this celebration of a dynamic and rapidly evolving nation will showcase the best aspects of modern Chinese society and culture, comprising a broad range of themes from cuisine and science to business, technology and education.
As well as major exhibitions of modern Chinese art and a season of contemporary Chinese dance at Sadler’s Wells, there will be community programmes in Yorkshire’s museums, a Hong Kong race day at Ascot and a nationwide tour by the Chinese State circus.
“There is a rising middle class of several hundred million people in China hungry for designer clothes, fridges, travel and technology. We want people to engage, understand and be ready to compete with a country undergoing dramatic social and economic change,” says Heale, who remembers looking across from Hong Kong to Shenzhen when it was a fishing village in the late 1970s – it is now an industrial city with a population of about five million.
The project has received support from both the British and Chinese governments but is funded by private business. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “I welcome China Now as a valuable and exciting idea to help bring our countries closer together and further develop and strengthen our relationship.”
As well as encouraging people to be better informed about Gordon Brown’s Chinese counterpart and his country, Heale would like for China Now to leave a legacy that continues beyond the exchange of the Olympic flag between the mayors of Beijing and London after the 2008 Games.
“To have encouraged 50 more schools to start teaching Mandarin would be an example of a sustainable result,” says Heale.
One of the festival highlights is the Victoria & Albert museum’s spring 2008 exhibition, China Design Now, which will be the first in the UK to explore the impact of rapid economic development on architecture and design in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
China is now the world’s biggest construction site and is set to overtake the United States as the second biggest consumer of luxury goods after Japan. “There is truly a sense of design frenzy in China right now,” says Lauren Parker, curator of the V&A; exhibition.
Her co-curator Zhang Hongxing adds: “Design in China’s cities has changed beyond all recognition in the last two decades. This is a moment when you can start talking about things being designed in China, not just made in China.”
China Design Now is at the V&A1; from 15 March to 13 July 2008 (0207 942 2000; www.vam.ac.uk)
