At the end of 2011, organized by the Ministry of Culture, a Chinese media delegation visited eight African countries in two groups along different routes, making in-depth reports on China-Africa cultural exchange and cooperation. The correspondents of this paper toured Ethiopia, Senegal, Benin and Nigeria, within 17 days, witnessing the rich fruits of China-Africa cultural communication and cooperation and seeing the influence and significance of Chinese culture on the African continent. The theme was "Chinese culture focus—my China stories."

Chinese culture: Our common affection

Abdallah Gemeda is a prestigious political figure in Ethiopia— Speaker of the National Assembly. He is a lover of Chinese culture and enjoys Chinese kungfu and kungfu movies. His is a fan of Bruce Lee and Jet Lee. In his opinion, Chinese martial arts are not simply physical motions for self-defense, but more importantly, contain an element of meditation and self improvement, so that while building up one's physical health, it also gives people inspiration. Gemeda was very pleased to have interviews with Chinese journalists. In a relaxing atmosphere, he told his "China story."

In 1996, as a high-level official at Ethiopia's Defense Ministry Abdallah was invited to take a three-month training in China's National University of Defense Technology, during which, together with officials from other African countries, he visited China's news agencies and some famous places of interest. One day, while walking and taking photos in Beijing World Park, like other tourists they found they were surrounded by many Chinese. The Chinese tourists stared at these black foreigners curiously, some even reaching out to touch their short hair and asked these foreigners to take photos with them. Abdallah happily accepted the Chinese tourists' requests, patiently taking photo with them one by one. Finally, he joked with their tourist guide from the World Park: "You should give us a refund of what we have paid for the tour here, because we were also part of the sightseeing targets!"

Mentioning these pleasant bygones, Abdallah said he was deeply impressed by the industrious and disciplined Chinese. Thanks to this great national personality, the Chinese completed one excellent project after another in Ethiopia, such as Addis Ababa's urban outer ring road and the African Union Headquarters Center. Ethiopia is now at the development stage, so it has a lot to learn from China. The Ethiopian people are eager for a good life, and thus they need to learn from the Chinese' people's great national personality.

Officials of Ethiopia's Ministry of Culture told People's Daily, at present, about 1,200 students are learning Chinese, some taking it as optional courses and some as required courses. However, it's a pity that Chinese courses are only open to students. Chinese Confucius Institutes somewhat make up for this by being open to the general public, so it's expected that more people might pick up Chinese in the future.

In the famous city of Dakar in western Africa, adding to the beautiful picture made by the blue ocean and golden sand beaches is the shiny new scene of Senegal National Center for the Performing Arts. This grand piece of architecture was built with assistance from China and is now the pride of the Senegalese people. It is now labeled as Dakar's "treasure" attracting tourists from Senegal and also the rest of the world. Art troupes from China and Senegal presented excellent performances in this theater. The unique charm of Chinese culture, the brightness and grandiosity of this "treasure" increases western African people's affection for Chinese culture. In Dakar Management School, to learn Chinese culture has become a new fashion. This school has set up the Asian center, where the Chinese language class is opened and Chinese teachers are invited to teach there. During their interviews with People's Daily, students of this school expressed the mind of many African people.

Moustapha Guirassy, Senegalese Minister of Communication & Spokesman of the Government, told the journalists that in both private colleges and state-run colleges, many African students are learning Chinese. The Chinese Government has sent teachers here. He said his son is now studying in Canada, but he demands that his son learn Chinese, because with the popularity of Chinese culture in Africa, to learn Chinese will be very helpful.

Chinese culture expected to get rooted in Africa

On the night of December 19, 2011, "Benin Chinese Culture Week," which was designed to showcase the charm of Chinese culture and promote cultural communication between China and Benin, was opened in Benin's famous city Cotonou. Actors and actresses from China's Qinghai Art Troupe performed dances, songs, episodes of Peking Opera, solos of musical instruments and many other excellent programs. They also acted together with Benin's Super Angel Art Troupe, performing traditional local dances. Benin's traditional dances were warmly welcomed and highly praised by local audiences.

The anchorperson of the opening ceremony and art performance is a youngster from Benin. He made a strong impression on the audience with his fluent Chinese and humorous style. It was later found out that he used to study in China for many years, not only achieving a doctoral degree, but was a student of China's famous cross-talk actor Ding Guangquan, traveling around China to perform cross-talk. He is thus very famous within and outside the cross-talk circle. Having returned from China to Benin, he has been employed by the Chinese Cultural Center in Benin and since then has been working on spreading Chinese culture. In Africa's annual comedy pageant Africa Comedy Festival, he used to give lectures about cross talk and Chinese humor to present excellent Chinese culture to Africans in a simple way.

Benin Chinese Cultural Center is located in the downtown area of Cotonou city. Morris showed the journalists around the center as a host. Multimedia libraries, multifunctional halls, language class rooms, cooking classrooms, martial art training ground, open air theatre, as well as simple, ancient and unsophisticated Chinese-style doors, Chinese-style architecture covered by red-colored glazes, Chinese pavilions, rockworks and springs. All these compose a shiny Chinese picture.

The center organizes rich and colorful activities. Members of the wire-punching club were making beautiful products. Students of the Chinese language class were singing the song The Great China, and the Taijiquan (a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing) class were performing 24 forms of Taijiquan very well. A six-year-old child's martial art performance needed some work but seemed to be on the right track.

Bai Guangming, Director of Chinese Culture Center in Benin, told the journalists, the center was set up in 1988 and is China second overseas Chinese cultural center. This center not only provides the Benin people with information services like book reading, movie projecting, and consultation on studying abroad, but also elementary and intermediate Chinese language classes, martial arts and Taijiquan training classes as well as short-term training classes in dance, acupuncture, cooking, paper-cutting and wire punching. There are also regular large-scale cultural activities such as Chinese culture special lectures, exhibitions and happy spring, etc. These activities have become an important window for the Beninese to know about China. The cultural minister of Benin spoke highly of the Chinese Cultural Center: "It's hard to imagine what will happen to China and Benin cultural exchange without the center."

Officials from other African countries all feel the importance of the Chinese cultural center. The minister of Nigerian Tourism, Culture and National Orientation Edmund Duke told the Chinese media that the most populous country on the earth has a cultural center in Africa's most populous country. This will promote cultural communication between our countries and benefit both. Ethiopia's Ministry of Culture officials also expressed their expectation for the Chinese Government to set up a cultural center in Addis Ababa, "so that more Ethiopians, particularly the ordinary people, will have opportunities to know about Chinese culture. We hope that Chinese culture take root in Africa."

Culture spreading started among children

"Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned? Isn't it a delight to have friends coming from afar?" Students are reading together aloud in Chinese while China's five-star red flag and Chinese knots are on the wall. The visiting Chinese journalists feel like at home in China. It is students in Garki's 11 District Middle School in Nigeria's capital city Abuja holding activities. There is a Chinese Culture Corner in Abuja, which has attracted many students who are gradually becoming fans of Chinese culture.

Abuja Elementary Education Commission's officials told the Chinese journalists, in July 2008, pushed by the culture office of Chinese Embassy in Nigeria and Abuja Elementary Education Commission, the first Chinese Culture Corner was founded in Nigeria. The corner was filled with Chinese elements and Chinese atmosphere. Students get opportunities to learn the Chinese language, read Chinese books and by doing so get to know this old oriental nation that is tens of thousands of miles away. In order to better help local students learn Chinese culture, the Embassy of China provided a local teacher with a Chinese Government's scholarship, so that she was able to learn Chinese in China. Back from China, this teacher returned to the local school, in charge of the Chinese language teaching and daily management work. Today, the Chinese Culture Corner is gradually developing into Abuja's Chinese language learning center and a window for the Nigerians to know about China.

In a community culture center in Abuja, six Nigerian young people made an excellent performance of Chinese acrobatics for Chinese journalists. They have just come back from their acrobatics learning in China. There was no acrobatic art performance in the real sense in Nigeria before them. The country had never sent any students to China to learn acrobatics in the past. Funded by China, they were able to travel to the hometown of Chinese acrobatics—Wuqiao and tried to learn acrobatic skills in Acrobatic Art School in Hebei Province for one year. Officials of Nigeria's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said they hope these students will grow up into Nigeria's acrobatic art founders and spreaders.

"Culture spreading should start with children," said Deng Boqing, China's ambassador to Nigeria. Deng said: In order that Nigerian adolescents have access to Chinese culture, we try to push the Chinese culture to campuses. Every year, the Embassy of China in Nigeria works together with local education commissions to take Chinese culture into school campuses through various activities, participated by 30 middle and primary schools every year. These activities cover Chinese culture lectures, talent shows, Chinese dialogues and drawing exhibitions, etc. These activities are very popular with local students. Meanwhile, the Embassy of China also donates Chinese books as well as audio and video materials to prestigious local universities, which were in need of Chinese books before.

When it comes to culture exchange and spreading, Senegalese Prime Minister Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye has his own understanding: A French philosopher once said, what is culture? When you have forgotten what you have learnt or you know, what's left is culture. During my visit to China, I particularly noticed the Forbidden City beside the Tian'anmen Square, and saw how well the Chinese protect their culture. In Senegal, we also have different ethnic groups and cultures. We hope that the young people will become cultural messengers, so that Chinese-Africa cultural exchange and cooperation will be full of vitality.