In visit to Juilliard School, top envoy says music promotes bonds

Music can be a bridge to understanding between China and the United States as their relationship experiences difficulties, Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said during a visit to the Juilliard School in New York.

Xie had a roundtable discussion Thursday with Juilliard President Emeritus Joseph W. Polisi and faculty and student representatives. The two sides agreed that exchanges and cooperation in musical art help promote mutual learning and strengthen people-to-people bonds between China and the United States.

The ambassador said that exchanges in musical art have played an important role in the history of China-US relations. In 1973, the year following then-President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first American orchestra to visit New China.

Following Ping-Pong Diplomacy, music diplomacy also has served as a bridge for bilateral cultural exchanges and people-to-people friendship, Xie said.

"The people are the foundation of China-US relations, and the youth are our hope," Xie said, adding that art has no boundaries, and music can be a bridge.

He noted that Juilliard is a world-renowned institution of music education. Its only overseas branch, the Tianjin Juilliard School, is both a successful example of China-US cooperation in running schools and an important platform for China-US youth exchanges.

As the bilateral relationship is facing difficulties and challenges, Xie said he hoped that the Juilliard School will use music as a medium to build a bridge between the two countries; help in overcoming differences; and bring peoples closer, so as to inject more warmth into the bilateral relationship.