The first Asia-Europe Meeting Culture and Arts Festival is to open on September 2 in Beijing. The theme of the week-long event is "Sharing Diversity and Innovation" aiming at bringing out the diversified Asian European culture in music, dance, film, theatre performances, exhibition and publications.

A press conference was held on Thursday morning to announce the upcoming event, which is a fruit of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in October, 2008. During the meeting, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao proposed to launch the ASEM Culture and Arts Festival, hosted on rotating basis. It was agreed the first festival would be held in China.

The design of the ASEM logo draws an arc resembling the Great Wall of China and a boat. Dong Junxin from the Ministry of Culture explains that the Great Wall is synonymous with the ancient Chinese civilization, and its boat shape resembles the contour of the Earth. The general concept is that the Festival is like a vessel of cultural exchange, a vehicle that carries half of the world's civilization and a bridge that connects rich cultures of Asia and Europe.

The opening performance Asian European Classical Symphony Concert will be staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts.

The week-long event includes an exhibition of Art Collections from Foreign Embassies in China and a Stamp and Currency exhibition. A Book and Audio-Visual Exhibition will also be held.

On the stage, the award-winning drama "Autumn Begins" and "A Handful of Jujubes" are scheduled amid an wide array of performance and film screenings from home and abroad.

The festival will end on a high note with the open-air Asian European Ethnic Music and Dance gala at Beijing Chaoyang park on September 8.

(CCTV.com August 14, 2009)