Fortunately, we still live in a world defined by its diversity, which is one of our most precious treasures. The dialogue between different cultures and peoples, the oldest and most fundamental mode of democratic conversation, is an antidote against rejection and violence. China has to communicate to the world its wonderful heritage, the assets this culture have developed throughout its long history.

But it's not an easy task. The political denigration campaign of China organized by some western powers and media has created a really distorted image of the country. Maybe we know something, even if filtered, about its economics or politics. But we know very little about Chinese history, Chinese amazing poetry, Chinese great peaceful thinkers or Chinese pragmatism, which impregnates quite every action in daily life.

I think it's necessary for the world to know better China, especially to know more about your culture, society, traditions, about the way in which 1.4 billion people could live here together in peace.

We know very little about your pragmatism, for instance, that age-old tradition of experimenting and seeking the best solution to the problems posed by reality. For thousands of years, the Chinese have tried different ways of adapting to nature to improve crops or channel rivers. Your alchemists experimented with different substances to achieve what society needed at a given moment.

Ancient Chinese science was mainly based on experience and was often aimed at practical application to meet human needs. There were hardly any theories formulated on the basis of analysis or logical method.

We also know very little about China's peaceful culture. For instance, about the voyages of Zheng He, who in 1405, almost a century before Columbus discovered America, made up to 7 expeditions with more than 300 ships and about 30,000 people across the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific.

They went as far as Africa and even the Cape of Good Hope. These were trading, exploration, diplomatic and scientific expeditions. In addition to the crew, there were traders, diplomats, explorers, doctors, scientists, monks and translators of all East Asian languages. These were not voyages of conquest, as the Western voyages were.

We also have little idea about how you the Chinese built the Great Wall, your universal symbol, to defend yourselves from outside invasion, not to attack.

Nor do we know much about your great thinkers and philosophical currents, such as the so-called Hundred Schools of Thought, which between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC influenced the whole of Asia. The Taoism, the Confucianism or about the influence in China of the Buddhism, the most clearly peace-oriented of all the great human religions.

I think it's crucial to explain this story better to the world. And there is another aspect.

When it comes to know a different culture, normally one is interested in the differences, in the exotic mystery of a foreign and very different world. But also one is amazed by the similarities, by the coincidences with one’s own culture. In the same way as when we know a person, we create a friendship mostly based on the things in common, on the views or ideas we shared.

When my family and I arrived here, more than six years ago, we were surprised by many things. Like everywhere I went before, I have tried to discover China with the mind free of prejudices and stereotypes, which I think is the only possible way to appreciate a different culture.

We found an amazing country, modern and old at the same time, full of diversity and energy with many brand new and different features as the ones we were used to.

But we found surprisingly some things in common as well. The importance granted to the family in China is very similar as the one we confer to it in Spain, especially in Galicia, my home region in the north of the country, by the Atlantic coast. The passion for the food, the long hours shared with families and friends around a big table full of delicious dishes. These were the same things that we enjoy.

Our surprise was also to see some old ladies roasting chestnuts on the streets of Beijing in autumn. Exactly the same thing and in the same way as we do in Galicia, a land crowded of chestnut trees.

Similar feeling we had when we discovered here that many urban migrants children stayed in their villages on the countryside with their grandparents. In our country, many people had also to migrate during the last century while leaving their sons and daughters in the village with their parents. Even today it still happens with the sea people, compelled to live without the family when getting on a boat for months or even for years.

We are not sure if these similarities have influenced our feelings, but certain is that we feel at home in China. After many years living in several countries in different continents, we can say that China is the one we feel most at home of all, no matter how far away could it be from our home country.

I was telling you this story because I think that maybe to concentrate first on the things we have in common, could be a good way to communicate the Chinese culture. A first step to go deeper after entering into the unknown.

Hope that one day the citizens of the world will be able to get to know the essence of this formidable country without distortions or filters. In a future where all cultures could live together in peace, learning from each other, exchanging the richness and the wonders the diversity of human kind has created.

Javier García Fernández, former Director of Agencia EFE in China, professor at Renmin University.

The article is Javier García Fernández's speech delivered in the "Decoding Zhonghua" International Conference on Dialogue among Civilizations in Beijing on January 17.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of DeepChina.