PARIS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese culture center in Paris held, jointly with Chinese Literature Fair, on Thursday evening a Chinese contemporary poetry recital for some 200 Chinese culture lovers.
"China and France are two countries with an ancient poetic culture and a strong poetic atmosphere. Literary exchanges between the two countries are frequent, constant mutual influences," She Mingyuan, director of the Chinese culture center in Paris, said in his opening speech.
For him, the recital aims to strengthen friendship between China and France "through poetry," and to bring in a new momentum into the communication between the two peoples.
For her part, Zhang Ruling, organizer and Chinese poet living in France, said that poetry can express all human feelings, such as love, friendship, and nostalgia for past times and lost loved ones.
"Poetry creates a natural link between cultures, between peoples, between human souls. In the complexity of today's world, more than ever, we aspire to understanding between peoples, to dialogue between hearts," she stressed.
Speaking at the event, Rene de Laportaliere, first censor of the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse, the oldest literary society in the Western world, said the academy, which was instituted in 1323, will open its competitions to French-speaking poets from all over the world on the occasion of its seventh centenary in 2024, welcoming the continued development of Sino-French poetic exchanges.
