A Hong Kong official hailed yesterday a trip to Beijing by the director of Taiwan's Kwang Hwa Information and Culture Center in Hong Kong as a "breakthrough" in Taiwan's cultural exchanges with China.
Lu Ping (
"Although Lu visited Beijing as a cultural figure, she is the first director of the center allowed to visit the capital," said Xin Kuishan (
Lu, a renowned writer, waited for months for her Hong Kong visa after being appointed as the center's director amid a hostile cross-strait atmosphere in 2002.
"Lu's trip to Beijing is a breakthrough. It indicates progress in cross-strait cultural exchanges," Xin said. Lu wrapped up her weeklong visit to Beijing and returned to Hong Kong yesterday.
Lu, who traveled with a group of Taiwanese publishers to Beijing, urged Taiwan and China to seek a true understanding of each other through cultural exchanges.
After touring the Beijing International Book Fair with the publishers, Lu told reporters that Chinese and Taiwanese publishers need to work together to create a global market for Chinese books.
"A lot of publishers told me they feel the Western book companies are like great invading armies because they own abundant resources and manpower," Lu said.
Lu said she was touched by Chinese and Taiwanese publishers' efforts to seek ways to work together. "They care about how to cooperate in the Chinese publishing and cultural industry. The publishers have overcome the political issues. ? Cultural exchange can create flexible space amid political tensions and bring more opportunities for peace for Taiwan and China," she added.
Lu said Taiwan and China lack understanding toward each other. "Of course both sides will have conflicts when they don't know much about each other. I hope both sides can have more patience," she said.
Lu, who had visited Beijing before becoming center director, said she was impressed by the rapid development in the city.
"We can expect more changes to happen by the 2008 Olympic Games," she said.
Nevertheless, Beijing, with fast growing infrastructure, needs to pay equal attention to problems such as traffic jams and the preservation of cultural heritage, she said.
"A society will start reflect on its cultural side when its economy grows to a certain degree," Lu added.
Meanwhile, He Guangwei (何光暐), director of China's National Tourism Administration, told representatives of Taiwan's travel agencies yesterday that he plans to invite Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) to visit China.
During a banquet with the representatives, He said if Taiwan lifts restrictions on Chinese people traveling to Taiwan, China would immediately permit all its citizens to visit Taiwan.
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