Malaysian culture shows its crowd-drawing appeal

"Many of our members showed great interest in getting involved when they heard about the festival," Yuan says.

Those members mainly work in Fortune 500 companies in Beijing, and some of them also work in Chinese science and technology companies.

"They are not only capable of cross-cultural communications and collaboration, but also have a deep understanding of domestic and foreign cultures," Yuan says.

"In fact, we received more than 100 applications, and finally chose about 40 people who can speak Malay and are familiar with Malaysian and Southeast Asian culture to participate in the organization and coordination of the event," he adds.

Those global volunteers were mainly responsible for the communications and coordination with the Malaysian side.

"First, the important role they play is as translators, and they are also responsible for the cross-cultural coordination," Yuan says.

Yuan has observed that the festival enabled international talent to enhance their cross-cultural communication and collaboration skills and gave them a chance to expand their social networks and find more opportunities for cooperation in Beijing.

"They have had a deeper understanding of Beijing and China in this process, because they have seen how we seek cooperation with an open attitude during the event preparation, so that they will trust and recognize us from the bottom of their heart," Yuan says.

Yan Bingjie contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn