Egypt and China are both ancient civilizations. To China, it is far more important to import its culture rather than its industry. Egyptians are sometimes able to watch some Chinese TV dramas in reflection of Chinese contemporary urban life with Arabic translation, but they can rarely find some translated book from China to read. We expect more approaches to understand China’s current situation and Chinese culture. 

In Australia, we will give performances at bars at weekend where we will find many Chinese friends who always warmly welcome us with frequent interactions. Besides, we will have several opportunities to go abroad or participate in some tour performances specially for ordinary people. However, the scale is incomparable with our experience in China. 

We really enjoy our time and performances in China, and we find that Chinese youngsters are quite fond of Rock & Roll. We look forward to coming again to perform for Chinese audiences in the future. As to the history of rock, Australia takes its leading compared with China. As rock music in China is still quite young, we hope to have more opportunities to exchange and compete with each other. 

Publicity to American culture in the form of folk arts is totally different from the cultural dissemination through Hollywood movies and McDonald hamburgers though sharing a common mission. As an ancient country, China has a long history and classical tradition of dance. In this CIFAF, some dances from ancient civilizations have collided and integrated with American new-style modern dance, which was a fantastic experience. 

Within such a short time, we have rehearsed 6 dances in order to showcase more of American culture to China and other countries in the world. Each dance is quite short, so the content must be of multi-elements. As our dance is popular among various groups of people, we have boasted with extensive fans. Sometimes, we will dedicate free performance in some communities.

Among more than 200 in total of our ensemble, just half of them are really engaged in art creation. As an art ensemble at national level, there are 21 similar art troupes spread in the 21 provinces in Mongolia and ours is one of the largest. Others usually consist of 70 till 80 people in right proportion with its located province. In every prime season of tourism in summer, our ensemble will conduct a certain scale of commercial performances while we are required to provide some quantities of charitable performances in public interest for the disabled every year. 

On the aspect of traditional inheritance, unlike many countries whose traditional culture and arts are slowly diminishing or hard to preserve, we still have intact culture on our own. As a nomadic group, the traditional nomadic singing has a lot to do with our nomadic life style and therefore the culture is still preserved entirely in its carrier in many regions. Our government even stipulated that Morin Khuur must be enshrined at the most important part at every household. All above policies made it possible for traditional art forms to survive as our tradition for ever. 

Some of our members have been to China, but for Ballet Silaba, it is their first time. The people of Senegal are very grateful for the hospitable reception extended from Chinese people. They are open-minded and concerned with etiquette and culture. Hopefully one day when they visit Senegal, we will definitely serve them with similar enthusiasm. 

We have been learning about China through books and TV programs especially documentaries. When we arrive in China, we gain an all-round and true understanding of this country. Chinese people pay close attention to their own culture, and we mainly get knowledge of its traditional culture such as Chinese traditional medicine we like most. We used to take China as a closed-door country, but great changes have taken place since reform and opening up. We will learn the way China gains its development, that is, preserving traditional culture while developing economy and modern culture. 

It is already over 30 years since China had exchange with Trinidad and Tobago. On the aspect of folk cultural exchange, we once invited many art institutes or troupes of many disciplines such as acrobatics, dance, music and traditional Chinese operas to perform in our country. Our orchestra’s performance in China is an important tie to promote exchange and communications in economy and culture between the two countries. 

Every country has its own abundant culture, especially for China, such a time-honored civilization. We feel Chinese calligraphy and painting fantastic after these days’ appreciation. We are delighted to have this opportunity to visit China, get to know artists and art forms of other countries and learn about their living way and culture. CIFAF provides a platform for different cultures to respect and understand each other, for which we must say thanks. 

Mostly our national dance will be in a pair of boy and girl, while group dance is the majority of Chinese dance, especially with scarf or fan as accessories. There is some difference in music and costumes as well. Our country also attaches importance to our own traditional art inheritance. Most of parents will take lessons on traditional arts and help their children to choose courses or make practice on traditional arts in schools and universities so as to preserve their cultural roots from generation to generation. 

Julia Grecos, Head of Flamingo Ballet of Spain 

To be a qualified dancer, one must be with passion and perseverance. With passion, he or she will find responsibility at heart. As a teacher and principal of Valencia Advanced Art Academy, I of course shoulder the responsibility to carry on our national dance. Generally speaking, Flamingo is an indoor performance in the evening, so it is our first time to perform in the open air for exchange and interaction with Chinese audience, which produced quite a different art experience for us. 

This is my third visit to China, and we were in Urumqi previously. Before I came to China, I imagined that it must be a country with different culture and customs. This time when we crossed the Yangtze River in ship, I was totally conquered by this magnificent scenery. 

José Galván, Head of The Cappella Group Voz En Punto of Mexico 

We are delighted to exchange artistic ideas with many famous art troupes in the world on the occasion of the 9th CIFAF. We have been to many countries for exchange performance, but mainly with singing choirs. In the 9th CIFAF, we have viewed lots of folk art performance, especially many dance companies. We are greatly inspired and touched at the sight of dances of various styles. Besides, we have made friends with our counterpart of different countries, especially those from Spain and Russia, who have started to sing our songs. 

China and Pakistan are friendly countries. Thanks to cultural connection and similarity, we are just like brothers. In this sense, wherever we perform in China, Yichang, Tianjin or Beijing, we just feel at home and all of us are happy and comfortable. On the occasion of the 9th CIFAF, our members associated with the artists from all over the world and witnessed many art forms we have been longing for such as Chinese dance and music and some traditional arts of other countries. Some of them amazed us greatly and brought us to the conclusion that art creation knows no bound. In my opinion, the experiences gained in this CIFAF will play a significant role in our future creation and innovation. 

For my dance ensemble and me, our trip in China was a joyful and fantastic experience. Chinese audiences impressed us deeply. Though they seem to be very calm usually, once fascinated by dynamic dance, they will immediately become passionate and bold. We used to believe that China might be as backward as Ethiopia as it still belongs to the Third World. However, the accelerated development of China gives us a big surprise. We will make a DVD out of our whole performance so that our own people will have further knowledge of Chinese people and arts. 

The dances Capture Your Heart and Let’s Dance Now are the latest production on the basis of Ethiopian traditional dance with unique style and distinct characteristics, so only artists from Ethiopia are able to interpret the very essence. When performed in China, those two dances gained popularity among the audiences. Many of them and even some artists of other countries tried to imitate our gestures in dance such as shaking shoulders and swinging head. Though many people expressed their desire to learn Ethiopian dance, it really takes a lot of trouble to learn the essence of this time-honored traditional dance. 

This is my first visit to China. I have never expected China to be so vast that the distance between Yichang and Beijing is farther than that between Poland and its neighboring country Germany. I have never expected Chinese art disciplines to be so various that Huagu Dance in Yichang are totally different from Peking Opera. Such a great country gives so many shocks to my members and me. 

At the opening ceremony in Yichang, our troupe took the opening performance and our Lublin Dance, our national dance, explicitly demonstrated our national character, which was greatly welcome by local audiences. It was an inspiring experience because our national dance still has so many understanding audiences in such a country of different culture as China.