Icons discuss how to tell 'China's story'

Bastketball player Yao Ming. [Photo/Xinhua]

Yao Ming is another internationally known ambassador of China. He said in the meeting that people from different cultures need to communicate more. Taking himself as an example, he said when he first arrived in Houston in 2002, the Rocket team got tough trainers to specially work with him, in case he did not work hard.

"They did not know that we Chinese athletes got very tough training from childhood and that we always have the mission in mind to fight together with the team."

He said after playing in the NBA for nine years, he has found that China and Western society have much in common. For example, Western people get involved with charity. Int he US,he often played in the NBA's project Basketball Without Borders, to help children and poor people.

"In China, we also have the old moral to respect seniors and love kids. We Chinese are also taught to help each other when we are young. We just do that same thing in different ways."

Movie star Jackie Chan tells China's stories through kung fu and movies.

"Whenever I work with movie production teams from Hollywood and Europe, I invite them to shoot the movies in China so that they can experience the real China, talking with the people, tasting the food and getting to know the country better."