Chongqing - The 2021 Looking China Foreign Youth Film Project Chongqing Tour was launched at the Dongfanghong Conference Hall of Southwest University in Beibei District on Wednesday, with 10 foreign students from the city's top universities ready to experience and document the Chongqing stories via their unique lenses.
All foreign filmmakers and officials from relevant counties and districts pose for a group photo. (iChongqing/Truman PENG)
With a theme of "Family, Home, and Nation," this year's event will invite some 70 foreign youth from 40 countries to produce short documentary films in the country's various provinces, municipalities, and regions.
The Chongqing Tour program, as part of the greater Looking China project, features a total of 10 Madagascan, Yemeni, Uzbekistani, and Nigerian students currently studying at Chongqing University and Southwest University embarking on a journey deep into the city's counties and districts to explore and shoot short films of various topics.
"Since Looking China's Chongqing branch was first launched in 2018, our collaboration with Southwest University has seen fruitful achievements during the past three years, as showcased by the many award-winning short films produced here by foreign filmmakers and with the assistance of local university students," said Prof. Luo Jun, vice president of the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), in his opening speech at the ceremony.
Luo Jun, vice president of the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture, gives an opening speech. (iChongqing/Truman PENG)
An Chunyuan, deputy secretary of the Southwest University Party Committee, said that the Looking China project isn't just a grand gathering of international filmmakers, but also an exchange platform linking aspiring foreign youth with the profound deposit of Chinese culture.
The launching ceremony also played a pre-recorded video speech of Agustin Mendilaharzu, foreign supervisor of Looking China and also a professor of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, who was still in Argentina and couldn't make it to the event in person due to concerns of epidemic control and prevention.
Foreign filmmakers sit next to their assign Chinese producer at the launching ceremony. (iChongqing/Truman PENG)
"Dear boys and girls, you are very honored and lucky to be here today, every film student in the world would like to be in your place right now," Prof. Agustin Mendilaharzu said in his speech when addressing the young foreign filmmakers. "Looking China is a perfect example of cultural exchange and cultural enrichment, you won't find a similar program with such investment in monetary and human resources in the whole world."
Publicity department officials from the counties of districts of Dadukou, Jiangbei, Beibei, Nanchuan, Qijiang, Dazu, Rongchang, Wuxi, and Shizhu also went on stage with relevant filming teams to announce the launching of their projects.
Qian Ling (L-1), 2nd-level inspector of the Municipal Publicity Department, presents the Looking China flag to foreign filmmakers. (iChongqing/Truman PENG)
Right after the conclusion of the launching ceremony of the 2021 Looking China Foreign Youth Film Project Chongqing Tour, Prof. Luo Jun held a lecture on Chinese culture at the same conference hall, which left a strong impression on the attending foreign students. His presentation was packed with bilingual audiovisual materials and colloquial yet easy-to-understand examples to demonstrate the essential cultural difference between the West and China.
Since its inception in 2011 as the first cultural experience program, sponsored by Beijing Normal University Huilin Foundation and hosted by AICCC, that invites international filmmakers to document the various aspects of Chinese culture in a 10-minute short film, the Looking China project has been successfully held for 10 editions attracting a total of 725 promising foreign filmmakers from 83 countries to participate.
Professor Luo Jun uses a chart and statistics to show the increasing number of foreign participants. (iChongqing/Truman PENG)