China National Tourist Office London presents
China Weeks:
WHEN CULTURE & TOURISM BLEND
May - June 2022
Welcome to the home of the 2022 edition of When Culture & Tourism Blend, presented by China National Tourist Office London.
This two-month festival celebrates the wonderfully rich tapestry of Chinese culture and tourism, during When Culture & Tourism Blend 2022 we shall explore how the two combine and intersect to enrich human experience and deepen ties between people, promoting cultural exchange worldwide.
Throughout May and June, CNTO London will be sharing a fascinating programme of online content, to bring you closer to Chinese culture and tourism. Featuring arts, music, cuisine, festivals, sport, and beyond! Our When Culture and Tourism Blend programme delves into the inextricable link between culture and tourism, as well as the differences and similarities that make the pursuit of travel and cultural engagement so rewarding.
Ensure you don't miss a thing by following our social channels or the hashtag #WCTB22.
Schedule
Throughout May and June, we have a delightful schedule to share with you all under the theme of 'When Culture and Tourism Blend'. Keep your eyes peeled for more information, timetables and links for the upcoming programme here.
We are proud to present the video of the exciting official launch of our 2022 edition of When Culture & Tourism Blend, from the 6th of May 2022, take a watch below:
Sections
For the 2022 edition of When Culture & Tourism Blend, CNTO London is honoured to introduce five distinct themes:
Collaborative China celebrates community projects and across the globe collaborations.
Wider China invites you to explore China in ways you have never seen before.
Festive China highlights traditional festivities and cultural customs,
Creative China is home to creative projects and incredible Chinese art.
Historical China encourages audiences to discover fascinating stories and the history of China.
Collaborative China
Our Silk Road: A Photo Exhibition
Since ancient times, the Silk Road has been central to cultural interactions between the regions and countries it traverses. Today, inspired by the Silk Road spirit of peace and inclusiveness, inspiring initiatives promote mutual understanding and friendship worldwide through tourism. This stunning exhibition features images specially selected from over 8,000 pictures by 330 photographers.
Our Silk Road is curated to advocate for cross-cultural dialogue and hopes to play a role in global efforts to create a compassionate international community. The photos capture the natural beauty and tell stories about culture, traditions and people with eight topics;
Our Faces, Our Home, How We Travel, Our Traditions, Our Harvest, Our Festivals, How We Grow Up, and Our Friendship.
Take a look at the impressive photographs below.
Our Faces
Our Home
How We Travel
Our Traditions
Our Harvest
Our Festivals
How We Grow Up
Our Friendship
Rediscover China in the UK
Rediscover China in the UK is a series of webinars presented by historians, writers and specialists on a variety of cultural topics, including UK-based destinations with a broader appeal to Chinese audiences.
CNTO London proudly presents a fascinating and insightful documentary series of talks from a wide range of speakers. Each of the captivating discussions explore intriguing subjects within Chinese culture.
Revisit recordings of these panel conversations on this dedicated page to the documentary series. Listen to experts on Chinese culture examine the history of China in riveting new ways.
Chinese Cookalong Live
Chinese Cookalong Live is host to exciting events that teach you how to cook authentic, flavoursome Chinese dishes at home easily, without lots of complicated ingredients or processes, the classes introduce you to a truly tasty Chinese meal that you can create whilst bringing the story of the dish and it's origins to life!
On June the 13th, an incredibly exciting cooking competition took place at the City of Bristol College! 14 talented culinary students were challenged to put their innovative spin on a classic Hunanese cuisine dish, fried pork with chilli.
The day saw delicious and inventive dishes with unexpected twists. The expert panel of judges tasted each one and scored them on a detailed range of categories including presentation, aroma, creativity, and flavour.
The judge’s board consisted of Ryan Fernandes, head catering lecturer at the college, Robin Liu, Nouvelles d’Europe UK Edition Assistant Marketing Director, John Hirst, former head of Visit Bristol, and Wang Ming, chef at the renowned Hunanese restaurant Rice Coming in London.
Special guests Dianne Francombe OBE, CEO of the Bristol West of England China Bureau, Cathy Bowstead, Director of Foundation Learning & Enrichment at the college, the Deputy Director of the Changsha Bureau of Cultural Tourism, Yu Lan, & our Director Xue Ling spoke at the event, sharing their experience with the beloved dish.
The winning chef who created the favourite dish was awarded a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Changsha where they will be able to experience Hunan-style cuisine in person.
The event presented by Dennis Hu, CEO of Make it China was an extraordinary way to bring China to the UK and promote ever vital cultural exchange. CNTO London love to see the cooks of the future learn about traditional Chinese cuisine, and in turn show us all that a classic has fresh gastronomical potential!
Congratulations to all those who participated and to the winner, Jaz Ragoo who wowed the panel with his flavourful and delectable take on the Chinese delicacy!
Watch the thrilling trailer for the full documentary coming soon below:
Wider China
Visiting Guizhou Online
Visiting Guizhou Online with GoGuizhou is an immersive online campaign, showing the national culture, intangible cultural heritage, eco-tourism and mountain tourism of Guizhou, a mountainous province in southwest China. We will offer you an exciting virtual journey to See, Hear, Taste, Study and Discuss Guizhou, including images of Guizhou landmarks, sights, and scenery; traditional Guizhou music and food; history and personal stories about Guizhou.
The Sons of Red Lake by Zhou Daxin
Published in January 2022, this absorbing book The Sons of Red Lake by Zhou Daxin, the renowned author hailing Dengzhou, Henan is selected as part of this year's campaign, read the blurb below:
An ailing mother forces Nuannuan to abandon her cherished metropolitan life and return to Chu Wang. Once there, she finds her birthplace fragmented and forgotten by modernity. Despite warnings, she quickly reconnects with Kaitian, a childhood sweetheart.
The village is centred around Red Lake, whose misty shores once provided solace to ancient kings and their entourages. The couple unearths forgotten treasures left behind from this royal past and are quick to capitalise, setting off a boom in tourism.
Word of the lake’s beauty spreads, attracting rampant outsider investment and infecting the sleepy village with dark tastes and unsettling appetites. Drunk on power, the newly elected mayor quickly starts to reshape Chu Wang to his own corrupt ends. Determined to share in this new abundance, will the villagers swap one type of poverty for another?
China Travel Course
We welcome you to discover more of the real China!
The China Travel Course can help budding travellers get ready for their trip. Through this free resource, you can start a virtual journey to learn about China's most fascinating destinations, unique cultural experiences, and must-try dishes. Plus, a host of other practical travel information.
Travel agents can understand how China's tourism industry is developing, gain professional skills, and learn how to design itineraries that meet their clients’ needs. Travel agents who complete the core twenty courses and five electives will receive a "China Travel Specialist" certificate issued by the China Cultural Centre and China National Tourist Office Overseas!
For more information, click here.
Best Season To Travel
Best Season to Travel 2022 is an inspiring new project aiming to discover the next generation of tour guides! By enhancing overseas tourists' understanding of beautiful China, the enterprise hopes to promote vital global cultural exchange. The event is brought to you by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Travel enthusiasts and Sino lovers are invited to send their photographs and films themed around popular Chinese tourist destinations, intangible cultural heritage, and more. An expert jury of tourism professionals will shortlist their favourites and the winners shall be proudly displayed online and offline.
Entries can be submitted between the 1st of May to the 15th of October. The front-runners will be announced on November 15th, with the victorious admissions exhibited worldwide until the end of 2022!
Anyone can join in, find out more information here.
Charming Encounter with The Yellow River in Sichuan
The Yellow River in Sichuan originates from the breath-taking glaciers and flows down through the wildlife-filled grasslands. See the magnificent sights here.
Festive China
24 Solar Terms
During When Culture & Tourism Blend in May and June 2022, four solar terms shall be celebrated:
The beginning of Summer/Lixia - 5th May
Lesser Fullness/Xiao Man - 21st May
Grain In Ear/Mang Zhong - 6th June
and Summer Solstice/Xia Zhi - 21st June.
Throughout the year, Make it China have been discovering the meanings and traditions behind the ancient Chinese 24 Solar Terms by creating their own short films for CNTO London. The team in the UK take part in customary activities encouraging them to explore the rich Chinese history in unexpected ways. Find out more below.
We also invite you to take a look back on last year's edition of our 24 solar terms campaign by following this link.
A Bite of The Silk Road: Xinjiang Cuisine Tour
The Silk Road is the home of trade, cultural exchange, and fantastic cuisine. Xinjiang is a central part of the Silk Road and the place where the four ancient civilisations meet, thanks to its rich geographical resources the unique food culture and cuisine styles of Xinjiang have developed beautifully.
This documentary series selects the hotspots for taste in Xinjiang and tells the stories behind the delicacies. The natural scenery, vivid cultural stories, and the inclusive atmosphere shine brightly. A Bite of The Silk Road explores the extraordinary multi-cultural society of Xinjiang.
Watch every instalment of the delicious journey on our YouTube channel.
Creative China
London Craft Week 2022
The prestigious London Craft Week returns! CNTO London is elated to be involved with a special exhibition 'Amazing China' which highlights astonishing Chinese arts & crafts.
A wide array of intangible cultural heritage techniques and inheritors of these artforms share their captivating stories.
Expect to learn something new, see incredibly unique pieces, and hear the artist's heart-warming tales. See a preview of the fantastic documentaries and art pieces below.
Boonie Bears: Back to Earth
London-based distribution company, The Media Pioneers, are proud to announce the theatrical release of their latest feature, Boonie Bears: Back to Earth, the latest instalment to the hugely successful Boonie Bears franchise, produced by Fantawild Animation.
The record-breaking family feature was released exclusively in cinemas by The Media Pioneers on the 27th May 2022, for kids and families to enjoy over the May half term holiday and the Jubilee bank holiday weekend in more than 200 cinemas across the UK. Cinema chains releasing the film include Odeon, Cineworld, Showcase, Empire, Reel Cinemas and more!
Watch the trailer below:
Art From A Silent World Exhibiton
“Art From a Silent World” is a captivating pottery exhibition featuring six young deaf, mute artists. The talented artists express themselves via clay, producing mystical sculptures. The artist's passion for their work is inspired by their life experiences, join us in admiring some of the astonishing pieces here.
Artists featured:
Liu Yongqiang, Sun Gang, Ma Jintao, Zhu Shiyong, Yu Weiwei, and Liu Mianli.
Historical China
Our China Stories
We are delighted to present Our China Stories, a series of conversations with ten British China experts, exploring Chinese culture and history through their eyes. The documentary series is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of China-UK diplomatic relations at an Ambassadorial level. Join us as we shine a light on fifty years of incredible cross-cultural exchange, interviewing experts from across the UK in varying professions.
These ten people, masters in their individual specialist disciplines, have dedicated their lives to the learning of Chinese history and culture, forming deep connections with the country, and seeking to enhance mutual understanding between China and the West.
You can watch every episode of the first and second seasons of Our China Stories below.
Season One
Watch the trailer for season one of Our China Stories.
Distinguished historian and sinologist, Dr Frances Wood, details her experience as a student living in China in the 1970s, of working as a curator of the Chinese collections at the British Library, and her prolific output as an author of popular Chinese history books.
BAFTA-winning film-maker Phil Agland speaks of the sparking of his interest in China as a teenager, and his opportunity to finally visit the country in 1989, to begin filming of his documentary ‘Beyond the Clouds’, following the daily lives of people in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, as the first overseas visitor to the town since the 1940s.
He also speaks about his upcoming documentary series, ‘The Cradle of Nature’, which explores China’s moves to conserve biodiversity.
David Buckley is the Chair of the Yehudi Menuhin School, which has strong ties with China following numerous visits by Yehudi Menuhin following a first trip in 1979. To this day, many students from China attend the school every year, and the school contributes significantly to Sino-British cultural exchange, through participation in such events as the China-UK International Music Festival.
David Buckley’s knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, Chinese music shines through in his work to generate understanding and appreciation of the art form.
We visit Nicky Harman, an award-winning translator of Chinese contemporary fiction and non-fiction, whose aim is, through her translations, to open a window onto Chinese life and society.
Her passion was ignited as a teenager when she was introduced by a tutor to books about the Silk Road, leading her to study Chinese at university. She speaks of the wealth of translated literature available now to readers of all ages, and looks forward to seeing the next generation of translators coming through.
In episode 5, we are in conversation with James Trapp, translator of numerous Chinese classics. His imagination was sparked when, as a teenager, he visited a major exhibition of archaeological finds from China at the Royal Academy, leading him to become one of only a handful of people, at that time, in the UK to study Chinese.
His career in translation grew from producing books on Chinese characters and astrology to translating major classic works such as Sun Zi’s ‘Bing Fa’, and he has actively campaigned to introduce Mandarin as a subject in UK schools.
Season Two
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of China-UK relations at an ambassadorial level! People's Daily Online celebrates the occasion by releasing a second series of the fascinating 'Our China Stories' documentaries that highlight influential figures in facilitating cultural and academic exchanges between China and the UK.
In this season, five Sino specialists share their riveting China stories. Some are former exchange students who journeyed over in the 1980s and after devoted their entire careers to promoting Chinese culture in the UK, and others who visited at the dawn of the 21st century and built up their scholarly reputation alongside the rapidly expanding country.
Jessica Harrison-Hall is Head of the China Section, Curator of the Sir Percival David Collections of Chinese Ceramics, and Decorative Arts at the British Museum.
In this episode of Our China Stories, she discusses her 30-year career at the British Museum, where she has delivered a wide range of exhibitions, publications, and lectures to present Chinese stories in a global context through visual and material culture.
In 2014, Harrison-Hall curated the special exhibition "Ming: 50 Years That Changed China" which attracted over 140,000 visitors! She is also the author of China: A History in Objects (2017), published in six languages, and various other books on captivating Chinese history and fine arts.
Dorian Fuller is a professor of archaeobotany at University College London who has extensive published work on topics such as past subsistence cultures, the origins and evolution of agriculture, and the process of plant domestication.
Through scientific and systematic sampling, a great deal of Dorian’s studies have contributed directly to filling major gaps in our knowledge on past agriculture practices around the world.
In this episode of Our China Stories, he delves into his career in particular his research at the site of Tianluoshan in Zhejiang Province published in 2009 which is renowned for pushing the earliest date of rice domestication and cultivation to as early as 6,900 years ago.
Anke Hein is Peter Moores Associate Professor in Chinese Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Employing a wide range of research methods from petrography to ethnography, her research focuses on cultural contact and identity formation in early human societies, primarily focusing on western China.
In this episode of Our China Stories, Hein explores her intriguing career. Since 2006, Hein has participated in numerous excavations and surveys along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. Her book on prehistoric burials in the Liangshan region is one of the first English publications on the area, bringing the incredible cultural diversity of early China to the world’s attention.
John Moffet is a librarian and the longest-serving member of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge. Moffet has worked with Dr Joseph Needham, a historian of science and author of Science and Technology of China, and three generations of Directors to create a lasting platform for academic visits and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.
In this episode of Our China Stories, Moffet shares his engaging insight. Alongside Prof. Chen Zhenghong of Fudan University, Moffet co-authored An Illustrated Catalogue of a Selection of Rare Books Written in Chinese Stored in the East Asian History of Science Library, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK (2020).
Tim Williams is a Professor of Silk Road Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
In this episode of Our China Stories, Williams examines his career, with over 40 years of experience in archaeology and heritage management, he is the author of multiple ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) thematic studies along the Silk Roads.
Williams has also worked closely with China and other Asian countries for nearly two decades, culminating in the unprecedented transnational nomination in 2014 of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ‘Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor’ between China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
A message from Mick Davies
Check out this special message from Mick Davies, Chairman of the Royal Society of British Artists to commemorate CNTO London's 2022 edition of China Weeks: When Culture & Tourism Blend.
Mr Davies tells of his passion for art and culture blooming after his first visit to the Chinese art room in the British Museum. Mr Davies is currently working on an upcoming exhibition with Chinese artist and poet Huaicun Zhang at the Mall Gallery in London.
Kizil Grottoes Kucha Murals: Online Exhibition The Pearl of the Silk Road
Explore the fantastical Kizil Grottoes Kucha Murals on Mountain Mingwutage virtually with this mesmerizing online exhibition. The exquisite Buddhist cave art also known as the Kucha Murals created during the 3rd – 9th century is still preserved today and can tell us extraordinary ancient tales of divine worship.
Contact
If you interested in obtaining marketing materials, including posters, visuals and videos, for any of our When Culture and Tourism Blend 2022 content, CNTO London is pleased to offer materials free of charge. Please use the link below to email us with your request.
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Partners
We would like to thank all of our esteemed partners involved in this year's edition of China Weeks: When Culture & Tourism Blend 2022. CNTO London is proud to work with a diverse selection of organisations who share our vision of bringing Chinese culture to a wider audience.
