Israeli culture takes center in China

After a prolonged period of lockdowns and closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, in recent months Israeli culture and arts have been taking center stage in China with several events.

For International Women’s Day, the Consulate of Israel in Guangzhou organized the screening of the Israeli movie “Zero Motivation” by Talya Lavie. The movie presents challenges that are relevant to Israeli society but are crucial also beyond Israel’s borders. It was screened with Chinese subtitles.

At the event, Consul General Alex Goldman Shayman emphasized the great strides made by Israel regarding women's roles in the IDF, as well as the significant progress in the world of cinema.

After the screening, Israeli Deputy Consul General Aviv Zell held a Q&A session with the audience, receiving many questions about the status of women in the country and especially in the army.

A few days later, the consulate also inaugurated an art exhibit featuring pieces by Jewish artists from across the world, including French sculptor Richard Orlinski, French artist Patrick Rubinstein and Frank Turgeman.

In addition, Zell also attended the opening of another exhibition focuses on contemporary art by Israeli artists, such as Calman Shemi, David Gerstein, Oz El-Hai, Zohar Yousefian and Adriana Naveh. The initiative featured art pieces full of bright colors and especially suited to attract the attention of the local audience.

Local government officials, cultural figures, businessmen and representatives of the local media attended the inauguration of the exhibit, which was scheduled to run until the end of May.

The initiative featured paintings, photographs and sculptures.

Also in March, the Consulate General of Israel in Chengdu organized an Israeli Culture Festival in Lijiang, a city in the Yunnan province.

The festival was held in a public park. The initiative featured four pavilions each representing a region/city in Israel (Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, North and South). Each structure was built to present each area to the local audience.

The event included a treasure hunt, whose clues were hidden inside the pavilions and required knowledge about both Israel and China.

In addition, the festival included an exhibition about Israeli cartoons, several movie screenings, and krav maga workshops for adults and children. An area to play Rummikub was also set up in the park, while a DJ provided a unique soundtrack to the event mixing Israeli, international and Chinese music.

Finally, the event also provided several Israeli and local Yunnan companies the opportunity to promote and sell their products. The seven Israeli companies attending registered record sales and ran out of their goods within three days.

About three thousand residents took part in the festival, which was also attended by several local officials from different cities in the province.

“The festival in Lijiang was an opportunity to showcase Israeli culture, its history and its values. We had excellent cooperation with the city officials,” said Consul General Gadi Harpaz.