Source: CCTV.com

03-28-2007 08:47

Monday was the start of the“Year of China in Russia", an event to help promote Chinese culture in China's northern neighbor. This follows "The Year of Russia in China" that was help through 2006. It was one packed with of reminiscence and discovery for all Chinese.

It's always exciting to make friends from afar. And when Russia set up a cultural feast for China last year, it stirred up profound feelings.

Rarely can another country be such an emotional trigger. But exchange between the two nations goes way back. China came to know Russia through the Bolshoi ballet, Gorky novels, and masterful oil paintings. And this year's comprehensive display of Russian culture made cross-border ties still more secure.

The mention alone of the Bolshoi stirs images of magnificent operas and ballets. To open the Year of Russia in China, the world-famous troupe held their biggest show ever on foreign soil.

Many more quality shows followed, with the theme of "Classic Forever, Heritage and Development." There were theatrical offerings, like "For Every Wise Man, There's Enough Simplicity" and "Petty Bourgeois," to Shostakovich's 1928 opera "The Nose." Chinese actors look up to Russian theater, and have taken their own bold steps, doing full justice to the country's classics.

For the 100th anniversary of the birth of Shostakovich, the Beijing Music Festival dedicated an entire series to the composer. Russia's oldest and most prestigious orchestra, the Mariinsky, played the Festival Overture at the opening ceremony.