Cultural Messenger—Yu Xi

Text by Liu Dongli

Cultural Messenger—Yu Xi

Text by Liu Dongli

Culture is the soul of a nation. The priority of my cultural mission is to influence the influential, to maximize the spread of Chinese culture, and to broaden China’s influence on the international community.

—Yu Xi

文化，是一个国家的精髓，从影响有影响的人开始，最大范围地传播中国文化，扩大中国的国际影响力，这就是我文化之旅的制高点。

——余熙

In November 2016, Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson, the Icelandic ambassador to China arrived in Wuhan and visited the city mayor Wan Yong. When they met for the first time, Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson presented Wan Yong a well-prepared gift—a book entitledA Date with the Northern Lightswritten by Yu Xi, which specially described Icelandic customs. Surprisingly, without prior consultation Wan Yong gifted Mr. Stefan Skjaldarson with a book entitledExplorations of Sister Cities—also written by Yu Xi—in which one article introduces the city Kópavogur in Iceland.

Who is Yu Xi? How is his writing prowess great enough that itwas his books that were chosen by both sides as gifts in a first diplomatic encounter? Actually, he works as a journalist ofChangjiang Daily, and is a two-time China News Award winner. In his office located in the ninth floor of the newspaper building, a world map hangs on the wall with different kinds of newspaper clippings and books stored neatly in the bookshelf nearby, all of which has demonstrated Yu Xi’s achievements as a cultural messenger in the past few decades.

As a writer, he has published 26 books in both Chinese and foreign languages. As a painter and a photographer, he has held 37 personal photographic art exhibitions in China, Europe and America, and his collections of personal photography albums have been published. Furthermore, he is an orator, who has delivered more than 100 speeches for a variety of topics in more than 60 countries all over the world. Obviously, he is the remarkable cultural exchange activist between China and foreign countries, who has interviewed more than 50 foreign leaders and over 100 foreign ambassadors to China.

He has done it all for a simple reason: promoting bilateral understanding between the world and China. In August 1991, Yu Xi held an exhibition in Switzerland and over 100 paintings were snapped up in only a few days. With a great sense of delight, Yu Xi felt the Swiss people’s love and curiosity about China and Chinese culture. “Many people then asked me whether Chinese women still practice foot binding, or if my father’s generation had still kept their braids?” Many foreigners had rather dated and stereotypical impressions of China from the old Qing dynasty, which was both astonishing and disquieting, and so he was desperate to broaden westerners’ knowledge of contemporary China.

Therefore, Yu Xi made a proposal to Swiss Rotary Club to arrange a special lecture for him to introduce China. The sponsor accepted with great pleasure. Thus, Yu Xi delivered his first overseas lecture entitled China’s Contemporary Culture & Arts in Olten, Switzerland. Yu Xi’s speech about Chinese culture and social status seemed to open a window for people to understand China, which was warmly welcomed by local citizens.

Since then, Yu Xi visited more than 60 countries in a row, including France, Germany, the United States and Bulgaria. He introduced Chinese culture to the world by giving a voice to a variety of Chinese imagery like, painting, calligraphy, photography and lectures.

In 2005 Yu Xi visited Iceland at his own expense, and was honored to be a visitor to the presidential mansion of Mr. Olafur Grimsson, the then- president of Iceland. In their conversations, he was surprised to know that there had never been a cultural exchange event with any Chinese literary and art organizations since China established diplomatic relations with Iceland more than 30 years ago. The president told him, the high expense of international travel was the biggest obstacle, to which Yu Xi retorted persuasively that holding a Chinese cultural event in Iceland would be of great benefit. He narrated lively stories of Chinese cultural arts, including Beijing opera, acrobatics, Chinese folk music and ink-wash paintings, saturating the elegant Nordic study where they sat with the hues and colors of classical Chinese cultural fare. The President sat there fascinated and wholly absorbed by the tales.

After four years of preparations, the First Sino-Icelandic Cultural Festival was successfully held in Kópavogur, Iceland on September 29, 2009. During the two months, nearly 100 Chinese artists showed the “magic” of Chinese culture to the people of Iceland with a Chinese “voice” that resounded throughout Iceland.

To further understanding of China, Yu Xi devoted himself in amplifying the Chinese voice so that it can be heard world-wide and expanding cultural exchanges with other countries in the following years. The distinguished politicians whose names have graced Yu Xi’s honored list of interviews include former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, former French President Sarkozy, Russian President Vladamir Putin, South African President Jacob Zuma, former Australian President John Howard, former US President George W. Bush, former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, former Canadian Prime Minister Chretien and former Singapore’s Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Consequently, some have praised him as “the people’s diplomat,” or“China’s Marco Polo.” For those honors,Yu Xi modestly replies that he is just doing what any good Chinese citizens should do.He prefers to consider himself a messenger of Chinese and foreign culture, a cultural diplomat spreading universal values and the glory and grandeur of Chinese culture to the world in a very humanitarian way, while introducing sophisticated foreign culture to China.

2016年11月，冰岛驻华大使司迪方造访武汉，并会见武汉市长万勇。初次见面，大使拿出精心准备的见面礼——一本来自武汉人余熙所著、专门讲述冰岛风情的《约会极地之缘》。让人惊讶的一幕出现了：在没有事先约定的情况下，万勇拿出的见面礼竟也是余熙的著作《余熙探友城》，其中，有一篇文章则是介绍冰岛的科波沃市。

余熙，他是谁，有什么本事，能让双方不约而同将他的著作作为双方外交的首选见面礼？

● On Oct. 28,2008, Mr.Yu Xi interviewed Mr.Purvanov (left), then president of Bulgaria, in Beijing.2008年10月28日，余熙在北京采访时任保加利亚总统珀尔瓦诺夫（左）

其实，他的职业，是武汉市《长江日报》的一名记者，曾两次获得中国新闻奖。

在他位于长江日报社9楼的办公室里，墙上挂着一幅世界地图；书柜里，整整齐齐地放着各种剪报夹、书籍。这一切，都沉甸甸地记录着余熙数十年来作为文化摆渡人的成果——

作为作家，他已公开出版中外文版著作26部；作为画家、摄影家，在欧美和国内举办个人美术摄影展览37场，出版个人美术摄影集多部；他还是演说家，在海内外60多个国家举办各种专题演讲100多场；当然，他最引人关注的身份是中外交流活动家，采访报道过50多位外国元首、首脑和100多位外国驻华大使……

他做的所有这些，都是为了一个简单的目的：让世界了解中国。而这一初衷，源于1991年。

那年8月，余熙在瑞士举办个人画展。短短几天时间，他的一百多幅画被抢购一空。这让他感到欣喜的同时，也看出了瑞士人民对了解中国文化的渴望。“当时我碰到不少人问，中国的女性是不是还在缠足，我的父辈是不是还扎着长辫子。”余熙说，在外国人的眼里，中国还停留在清朝，这让他十分震惊，更感到焦虑，他迫切地想让西方人了解真正的当代中国。

于是，余熙向画展邀请方瑞士扶轮社提出请求，请他们安排一场由他介绍中国的演讲会，对方欣然应允。就这样，在瑞士奥尔滕市，余熙主讲了人生首场海外文化交流演讲，《今日中国的文化艺术》。余熙口中的中国文化和社会现状，仿佛打开了一扇了解中国的窗户，受到当地群众的热烈欢迎。

● Yu Xi's photographic work余熙摄影作品

此后几十年间，余熙先后去了法国、德国、美国、保加利亚等60余个国家，以书画、摄影、演讲等多种形式向世界人民展示中华文化，传递中国声音。

●In Nov. 2013, Mr. Tommiichi Murayama, the former Prime Minister of Japan, presented his new book to Mr. Yu Xi. Photo by Zhou Jianwen 2013年11月，日本前首相村山富市（右）向余熙赠书 周健文摄

● A watercolor painting by Yu Xi 余熙创作的水彩画

2005年，余熙自费访问冰岛，并有幸进入时任冰岛总统奥拉维尔·格里姆松先生的官邸做客。交谈时，余熙吃惊地得知，冰岛与中国建交30多年来，从未有任何中国文艺团体来冰举办过文化交流。总统说，高昂的国际旅费是“拦路虎”。余熙当即决定，以中国公民身份游说总统同意并支持在冰举办中国文化节，并以京剧、杂技、民乐、水墨画为素材，向总统演绎中国文化艺术的精彩故事。在那间具有典雅别致北欧风情的书房里，奥拉维尔总统听得十分入迷……

经过四年的磋商和筹备，2009年9月29日，“冰岛·中国文化节”终于成功在冰岛科波沃举行。在两个多月的时间里，近百位中国艺术家向冰岛人民展现了“神奇”的中国文化，让中国声音响彻冰岛。

为了让更多的人了解中国，余熙数十年如一日，始终坚持以一个普通公民的名义向世界传递中国的声音，倾心从事对外文化交流工作。古巴前领导人菲德尔·卡斯特罗、法国前总统萨科齐、俄罗斯总统普京、南非总统祖马、澳大利亚前总理霍华德、美国前总统布什、韩国前总统金大中、加拿大前总理克雷蒂安、新加坡前总理吴作栋…这些政要，都曾是余熙采访席上的座上宾。

有人因此赞誉他为“民间外交家”、“中国的马可·波罗”，对于这些荣誉，余熙谦虚地表示，自己只是做了一个中国普通公民应该做的事，他更愿意把自己当成一个中外文化的摆渡人，将中国主流价值和璀璨文化，以富有人情味的方式传播给世界，再把外国先进的文化载回中国。

文化摆渡人——余熙

文 |刘冬莉