China Season of 2015 China-UK Year of Cultural Exchange launched in London

The China Season of the 2015 China-UK Year of Cultural Exchange was launched in London on Tuesday, revealing a series of events in the coming months.

This came after the first half of the UK Culture Season in China has seen a great success.

Besides the Chinese version of Richard III that was staged at the Shakespeare's Globe at the end of July, the China Season will feature performances from pianists Lang Lang and Wang Yujia, as well as China's leading art groups, including Tao Dance Theater, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Band and Zhejiang Changxing Lotus Dragon Art Group.

Yabin Dance Studio and China National Peking Opera Company will also bring their shows to British audience in September and November, said Xiang Xiaowei, Minister Counsellor for culture of the Chinese Embassy, at a press briefing at the Chinese Embassy in London on Tuesday.

Moreover, to promote exchange and cooperation in cultural innovation between China and Britain, Shenzhen-Edinburgh International Creative Industry Incubation Center will be launched in August. Chinese elements will also be seen in the London Fashion Week and London Design Festival in September.

Chinese cultural trade institute and universities from the two countries will hold Creative-Industry and Cultural Trade Forum of China and UK between September and October.

Other events in a wide field, including museum professional training, mobile phone photo contest and Chinese films will also be launched in the second half of the year.

Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said at the launch of China Culture Season that, thanks to the concerted efforts of both sides, China-UK people-to-people exchange has been more active in recent years than ever before.

"Culture exchanges are encouraged and endorsed by government-to-government dialogues, but it's the people-to-people exchanges, and the artist-to-artist exchanges, which are at the heart of bilateral relationships between our two countries, and that's why the Year of Cultural Exchanges so important," said Keith Nichol, coordinator of Cultural Diplomacy of British Department for Culture, Media and Sport.