2019年CRI 19th Meet in Beijing arts festival to highlight different cultures in late April（在线收听）

The annual Meet in Beijing arts festival will grace China's capital later this month with music, dance, drama and exhibitions from around the globe.

After 18 years' of evolution, Meet in Beijing has become a key platform for artists and art lovers from around the world to come together and share ideas.

Li Baozong is from Chia Arts and Entertainment Group. He said the festival plays a prominent twin role in the art world.

"One, it is a landing platform for classic world art to enter China, and it is the starting platform for China's excellent stage performance art to enter the world."

According to Li, about 30-thousand artists from over a thousand art groups coming from more than 120 countries have showcased the world's varied cultures on the stage of Meet in Beijing, reaching an audience of more than 4.2 million people in the past 18 years.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. It's also the 40th anniversary of the first performance by the Utah-based Brigham Young University arts troupe in China. The university's associate international vice president Jeffrey Ringer said they are planning to do something big for the upcoming festival.

"Two years ago when I was here in Beijing on business, I was meeting with the government official and he said to me, Jeff, when I saw your performance in 1979 as a young man, I was very impressed. For your 40th anniversary, you need to do something very big. So we'll be bringing our largest show that we've ever taken anywhere in the world here to China, next month. We want to celebrate those 40 years of friendship, 40 years of relationships we have. That's why every year we send our students here to study because we believe that you can't understand the world without understanding China."

Asian cultures will play the leading role in this year's Meet in Beijing.

Xiao Xiayong from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism explains.

"This year's Meet in Beijing arts festival highlights Asian characteristics. It invites artists from other Asian countries to showcase their talents and the charms of Asian cultures in Asia in the Harmony Concert, the Ballet Gala of Asia."

Performances from Latin American and the Caribbean have become some of the most popular events at the festival in recent years.

This is Sun Bo, the director of the Beijing Overseas Cultural Exchanges Center.

"The art season includes performances by arts troupes from more than 10 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Besides music and dance, there are also intangible cultural heritage shows and a gourmet festival."

This year's Meet in Beijing will be held from April 25th to May 25th. About 50 shows will be performed by 600 artists from 25 countries.