Cultural Messenger—Yu Xi

Text by Liu Dongli

Cultural Messenger—Yu Xi

Text by Liu Dongli

Culture is the soul of a nation. The priority of my cultural mission is to influence the influential, to maximize the spread of Chinese culture, and to broaden China’s influence on the international community.

—Yu Xi

文化，是一個國家的精髓，從影響有影響的人開始，最大范圍地傳播中國文化，擴大中國的國際影響力，這就是我文化之旅的制高點。

——余熙

In November 2016, Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson, the Icelandic ambassador to China arrived in Wuhan and visited the city mayor Wan Yong. When they met for the first time, Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson presented Wan Yong a well-prepared gift—a book entitledA Date with the Northern Lightswritten by Yu Xi, which specially described Icelandic customs. Surprisingly, without prior consultation Wan Yong gifted Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson with a book entitledExplorations of Sister Cities—also written by Yu Xi—in which one article introduces the city Kópavogur in Iceland.

Who is Yu Xi? How is his writing prowess great enough that itwas his books that were chosen by both sides as gifts in a first diplomatic encounter? Actually, he works as a journalist ofChangjiang Daily, and is a two-time China News Award winner. In his office located in the ninth floor of the newspaper building, a world map hangs on the wall with different kinds of newspaper clippings and books stored neatly in the bookshelf nearby, all of which has demonstrated Yu Xi’s achievements as a cultural messenger in the past few decades.

As a writer, he has published 26 books in both Chinese and foreign languages. As a painter and a photographer, he has held 37 personal photographic art exhibitions in China, Europe and America, and his collections of personal photography albums have been published. Furthermore, he is an orator, who has delivered more than 100 speeches for a variety of topics in more than 60 countries all over the world. Obviously, he is the remarkable cultural exchange activist between China and foreign countries, who has interviewed more than 50 foreign leaders and over 100 foreign ambassadors to China.

He has done it all for a simple reason: promoting bilateral understanding between the world and China. In August 1991, Yu Xi held an exhibition in Switzerland and over 100 paintings were snapped up in only a few days. With a great sense of delight, Yu Xi felt the Swiss people’s love and curiosity about China and Chinese culture. “Many people then asked me whether Chinese women still practice foot binding, or if my father’s generation had still kept their braids?” Many foreigners had rather dated and stereotypical impressions of China from the old Qing dynasty, which was both astonishing and disquieting, and so he was desperate to broaden westerners’ knowledge of contemporary China.

Therefore, Yu Xi made a proposal to Swiss Rotary Club to arrange a special lecture for him to introduce China. The sponsor accepted with great pleasure. Thus, Yu Xi delivered his first overseas lecture entitled China’s Contemporary Culture & Arts in Olten, Switzerland. Yu Xi’s speech about Chinese culture and social status seemed to open a window for people to understand China, which was warmly welcomed by local citizens.

Since then, Yu Xi visited more than 60 countries in a row, including France, Germany, the United States and Bulgaria. He introduced Chinese culture to the world by giving a voice to a variety of Chinese imagery like, painting, calligraphy, photography and lectures.

In 2005 Yu Xi visited Iceland at his own expense, and was honored to be a visitor to the presidential mansion of Mr. Olafur Grimsson, the then- president of Iceland. In their conversations, he was surprised to know that there had never been a cultural exchange event with any Chinese literary and art organizations since China established diplomatic relations with Iceland more than 30 years ago. The president told him, the high expense of international travel was the biggest obstacle, to which Yu Xi retorted persuasively that holding a Chinese cultural event in Iceland would be of great benefit. He narrated lively stories of Chinese cultural arts, including Beijing opera, acrobatics, Chinese folk music and ink-wash paintings, saturating the elegant Nordic study where they sat with the hues and colors of classical Chinese cultural fare. The President sat there fascinated and wholly absorbed by the tales.

After four years of preparations, the First Sino-Icelandic Cultural Festival was successfully held in Kópavogur, Iceland on September 29, 2009. During the two months, nearly 100 Chinese artists showed the “magic” of Chinese culture to the people of Iceland with a Chinese “voice” that resounded throughout Iceland.

To further understanding of China, Yu Xi devoted himself in amplifying the Chinese voice so that it can be heard world-wide and expanding cultural exchanges with other countries in the following years. The distinguished politicians whose names have graced Yu Xi’s honored list of interviews include former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, former French President Sarkozy, Russian President Vladamir Putin, South African President Jacob Zuma, former Australian President John Howard, former US President George W. Bush, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, former Canadian Prime Minister Chretien and former Singapore’s Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Consequently, some have praised him as “the people’s diplomat,” or“China’s Marco Polo.” For those honors,Yu Xi modestly replies that he is just doing what any good Chinese citizens should do.He prefers to consider himself a messenger of Chinese and foreign culture, a cultural diplomat spreading universal values and the glory and grandeur of Chinese culture to the world in a very humanitarian way, while introducing sophisticated foreign culture to China.

2016年11月，冰島駐華大使司迪方造訪武漢，并會見武漢市長萬勇。初次見面，大使拿出精心準備的見面禮——一本來自武漢人余熙所著、專門講述冰島風情的《約會極地之緣》。讓人驚訝的一幕出現了：在沒有事先約定的情況下，萬勇拿出的見面禮竟也是余熙的著作《余熙探友城》，其中，有一篇文章則是介紹冰島的科波沃市。

余熙，他是誰，有什么本事，能讓雙方不約而同將他的著作作為雙方外交的首選見面禮？

● On Oct. 28,2008, Mr.Yu Xi interviewed Mr.Purvanov (left), then president of Bulgaria, in Beijing.2008年10月28日，余熙在北京采訪時任保加利亞總統珀爾瓦諾夫（左）

其實，他的職業，是武漢市《長江日報》的一名記者，曾兩次獲得中國新聞獎。

在他位于長江日報社9樓的辦公室里，墻上掛著一幅世界地圖；書柜里，整整齊齊地放著各種剪報夾、書籍。這一切，都沉甸甸地記錄著余熙數十年來作為文化擺渡人的成果——

作為作家，他已公開出版中外文版著作26部；作為畫家、攝影家，在歐美和國內舉辦個人美術攝影展覽37場，出版個人美術攝影集多部；他還是演說家，在海內外60多個國家舉辦各種專題演講100多場；當然，他最引人關注的身份是中外交流活動家，采訪報道過50多位外國元首、首腦和100多位外國駐華大使……

他做的所有這些，都是為了一個簡單的目的：讓世界了解中國。而這一初衷，源于1991年。

那年8月，余熙在瑞士舉辦個人畫展。短短幾天時間，他的一百多幅畫被搶購一空。這讓他感到欣喜的同時，也看出了瑞士人民對了解中國文化的渴望。“當時我碰到不少人問，中國的女性是不是還在纏足，我的父輩是不是還扎著長辮子。”余熙說，在外國人的眼里，中國還停留在清朝，這讓他十分震驚，更感到焦慮，他迫切地想讓西方人了解真正的當代中國。

于是，余熙向畫展邀請方瑞士扶輪社提出請求，請他們安排一場由他介紹中國的演講會，對方欣然應允。就這樣，在瑞士奧爾滕市，余熙主講了人生首場海外文化交流演講，《今日中國的文化藝術》。余熙口中的中國文化和社會現狀，仿佛打開了一扇了解中國的窗戶，受到當地群眾的熱烈歡迎。

● Yu Xi's photographic work余熙攝影作品

此后幾十年間，余熙先后去了法國、德國、美國、保加利亞等60余個國家，以書畫、攝影、演講等多種形式向世界人民展示中華文化，傳遞中國聲音。

●In Nov. 2013, Mr. Tommiichi Murayama, the former Prime Minister of Japan, presented his new book to Mr. Yu Xi. Photo by Zhou Jianwen 2013年11月，日本前首相村山富市（右）向余熙贈書 周健文攝

● A watercolor painting by Yu Xi 余熙創作的水彩畫

2005年，余熙自費訪問冰島，并有幸進入時任冰島總統奧拉維爾·格里姆松先生的官邸做客。交談時，余熙吃驚地得知，冰島與中國建交30多年來，從未有任何中國文藝團體來冰舉辦過文化交流。總統說，高昂的國際旅費是“攔路虎”。余熙當即決定，以中國公民身份游說總統同意并支持在冰舉辦中國文化節，并以京劇、雜技、民樂、水墨畫為素材，向總統演繹中國文化藝術的精彩故事。在那間具有典雅別致北歐風情的書房里，奧拉維爾總統聽得十分入迷……

經過四年的磋商和籌備，2009年9月29日，“冰島·中國文化節”終于成功在冰島科波沃舉行。在兩個多月的時間里，近百位中國藝術家向冰島人民展現了“神奇”的中國文化，讓中國聲音響徹冰島。

為了讓更多的人了解中國，余熙數十年如一日，始終堅持以一個普通公民的名義向世界傳遞中國的聲音，傾心從事對外文化交流工作。古巴前領導人菲德爾·卡斯特羅、法國前總統薩科齊、俄羅斯總統普京、南非總統祖馬、澳大利亞前總理霍華德、美國前總統布什、韓國前總統金大中、加拿大前總理克雷蒂安、新加坡前總理吳作棟…這些政要，都曾是余熙采訪席上的座上賓。

有人因此贊譽他為“民間外交家”、“中國的馬可·波羅”，對于這些榮譽，余熙謙虛地表示，自己只是做了一個中國普通公民應該做的事，他更愿意把自己當成一個中外文化的擺渡人，將中國主流價值和璀璨文化，以富有人情味的方式傳播給世界，再把外國先進的文化載回中國。

文化擺渡人——余熙

文 |劉冬莉