Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

Co-hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the Japan Foundation (JF) and the Korea-Japan Cultural Exchange Council (KJCE) and other Japanese and Korean organizations, the Twelfth Meeting of the China-Japan-Korea Cultural Exchange Forum was held in Hiroshima-shi, Japan on November, 17th. Over 30 people including Mme. Li Xiaolin, President of the CPAFFC, Mr. KAZUO OGURA, Consultant of the JF, Mr. Chung Ku Chong, Chairman of the KJCE, Mr. Yang Houlan, Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and experts and scholars in the field of culture of the three countries, attended the meeting.

President Li Xiaolin said in her opening speech that the three countries, China, Japan and Korea, all located in North-East Asia. They are close neighbors linked by a narrow strip of water and keep close and friendly exchanges. The people of the three countries learned each other during the thousand years of history of cultural exchanges, which created their own charming national culture and also enriched the civilization of the East-Asia. Therefore, the three countries established a mutual understanding and recognition basis that is far beyond other countries’ relations. President Li hoped that the three countries could take this forum as an important opportunity to promote the cultural exchanges, commonly show the charm and their characteristic culture to the world, enhance the mutual understanding and friendship of the peoples of the three countries and make efforts to promote the long-term, healthy and stable development of the trilateral relations.

KAZUO OGURA said that the three countries have encountered many difficult challenges in the past on the political and economical relations. They will also face many issues in the future. The cultural exchange plays an important role in improving the relations of the three countries and strengthening the feelings of the peoples. He hoped that the three countries could further enlarge the cultural exchanges and lay a peaceful and stable foundation.

Chung Ku Chong said that the three countries with long and friendly history have many common points in the field of culture. This is a good basis for the exchange. He hoped that the three countries’ personages in cultural field could exchange honestly and commonly push forward their cultural exchanges.

The theme of this meeting was the “Food Culture and International Exchanges among China, Japan and Korea”. The experts from the three countries introduced respectively the features of their own food and the charm of their culture on the meeting and the representatives had an in-depth and pragmatic discussion on the topics of how to further enlarge the three countries’ cultural exchanges through friendly cities, youth and other ways, and reached an extensive consensus. The meeting achieved a complete success.

The China-Japan-Korea Cultural Exchange Forum was launched in Seoul, Korea in 2005 and held the first meeting there. It is held in one country each year in turn. The original purpose of the forum is to actively promote the cultural exchanges of the three countries on the basis of respecting their culture diversity, so as to protect the healthy development of the trilateral relations and the peace and stability of the North-East Asia.