In the afternoon of June 8th, Mr. You Mengjun and Mr. Hang Dong, the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor of the Fuzhou Municipal People's Government, attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Tomihisa TAUE, Mayor of City of Nagasaki, Japan, Ms. Victoria Woodards, Mayor of City of Tacoma, the United States, Mr. Dario Saadi, Mayor of City of Campinas, Brazil, Ms. Oksana Fadina, Mayor of City of Omsk, Russia, Mr. Hendrar Prihadi, Mayor of City of Semarang, Indonesia, Ms. Anna Reynolds, Lord Mayor of City of Hobart, Australia, Mr. Willy Demeyer, Mayor of City of Liege, Belgium, Mr. Rick Blangiardi, Mayor of City and County of Honolulu, the United States, and Mr. Ing Horh Ting, Mayor of City of Sibu, Malaysia also attended the opening ceremony online and made remarks.

On behalf of the municipal government and all the people of Fuzhou, Mr. You Mengjun, extended welcome and gratitude to all the mayors attending the opening ceremony. He said, in recent years, holding the idea of opening and inclusiveness, Fuzhou has carried out a series of public-diplomacy activities themed ‘the Beauty of Fuzhou’ to promote people-to-people exchanges with its international friendship cities. This year, Fuzhou hosted online the First Fuzhou International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival with a view to expend the channels of cultural exchanges, build a new platform of real-time interaction and jointly write a new chapter of the exchanges and cooperation among international friendship cities.

Mr. Tomihisa TAUE gave a general introduction of the City of Nagasaki, and reviewed the history of its friendly exchanges with Fuzhou. He commented that this Cultural Festival provided a sound opportunity for communication among various countries. He also proposed that Fuzhou and Nagasaki should discuss on further exchanges and cooperation at the coming 450th anniversary of the opening of the Nagasaki Port.

Ms. Victoria Woodards expressed that Tacoma has long valued the power of culture and has carried out various forms of cultural exchanges with Fuzhou in the past 20 years and more. She believed that this cultural festival would further promote the mutual cultural learning between the two sides.

Mr. Dario Saadi expressed that Campinas is proud of the 25-year history of friendship-city relationship between the two cities. Also, he took the opportunity of this Cultural Festival to thank Fuzhou for having donated medical and epidemic-prevention materials to Campinas in 2020.

Ms. Oksana Fadina said that this Cultural Festival bringing together different cities ‘in the cloud’ was of positive significance for promoting multicultural integration and mutual learning. It is her hope that, on the basis of the last year’s fifth anniversary of Omsk and Fuzhou’s friendship, the two cities will further deepen their exchanges and cooperation and use art as a medium to broaden channels for exchanges and mutual learning through platforms like this Cultural Festival and others.

Mr. Hendrar Prihadi believes that Fuzhou's online International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival promoted exchanges and mutual learning among different cultures, and on the other hand, it also enhanced the beautiful friendship between international friendship cities. He said that Semarang City looks forward to continuing to go hand in hand with Fuzhou City to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields.

Ms. Anna Reynolds expressed that Fuzhou and Hobart have many things in common. Since the establishment of their relationship, the two cities have carried out a variety of activities for cultural exchanges and cooperation. It is hoped that the two sides will continue to strengthen cultural and educational cooperation in the future and push the friendly relations to a higher level.

Mr. Willy Demeyer highly appreciated this Cultural Festival hosted by Fuzhou under the normalized epidemic prevention and control. He believes that the activities can go beyond the barriers of time and space to provide a platform for promoting mutual understanding among different cities.

Mr. Rick Blangiardi said that the Cultural Festival provided a good opportunity for the restoration of friendly ties between different countries. Honolulu City looks forward to increasing its ties with Fuzhou, enhancing understanding and sharing the beauty of cultures.

Mr. Ing Horh Ting said that Sibu have a deep connection with Fuzhou, as many of Sibu’s citizens have Fuzhou ancestry and the cultures of the two cities have many similarities. He looks forward to deeper friendship and more exchanges and cooperation between the two cities in the future.

On the afternoon of the 9th, the "City Culture and Building An International City" Dialogue was held in Fuzhou via the cloud. Representatives from Nagasaki of Japan, Omsk of Russia, Semarang of Indonesia, Hobart of Australia, Leige of Belgium, and Fuzhou of China discussed freely via video link.

Mr. Lin Shan, the Executive Vice Chairman of Fuzhou Municipal Association of Mindu Culture and Fifth President of Fuzhou Federation of Social Science Associations, made a wonderful speech on behalf of Fuzhou, the initiator of this event. He discussed the history and evolution of Fuzhou culture as well as the city’s traditions and fashion. With Fuzhou’s city flower, jasmine and its city tree, banyan, as the entry points, Mr. Lin talked from Fuzhou's foreign exchanges in history to the internationalization of cities today, demonstrating Fuzhou's city spirit and profound culture.

Ms. Anastasia Terpugova, Vice-Mayor of Omsk City, believes that the governments and private sectors should practice cultural exchanges to strengthen ties. She hopes that Omsk, which has great cultural potential, will establish more international dialogues with other cities on the basis of cultural exchanges.

Ms. HARADA Hiroko, Director of the Secretarial and Public Relations Department of Nagasaki, gave a comprehensive introduction to her city and the historical influences from foreign cultures on it. She believes that a city’s history and the culture it has developed are solid foundation for its future development, and only by carrying forward the good cultures and expanding international exchanges, can a city achieve long-term development.

Ms. Stephanie LEMAIRE, Coordinator for Protocol and International Relations of Liege, Belgium, demonstrated Liege’s inclusiveness and development prospects in terms of geographical location, industry and educational institutions. At the same time, he said that Liege has rich cultural resources and a strong cultural atmosphere and is willing to carry out international cultural exchanges in the spirit of openness.

Ms. Lucy Knott, Senior Advisor Economic Development丨Community Life of Hobart City Council, Australia, introduced the general situation of Hobart and its main cultural festivals. She believes that the cultures of overseas immigrants have made a positive impact on the formation of Hobart's multiculturalism.

Ms. Sita Dewi, Chief of Culture and Tourism Information Section in Culture and Tourism Department of Semarang Municipality, Indonesia, introduced the unique historical connection between Semarang and Zheng He, the great navigator in Chinese history. He believes that Chinese culture has given color to all aspects of Semarang’s local life. He looks forward to more cultural exchanges with other countries through activities like this International Friendship Cities Cultural Festival.

During the dialogue, the guests at the meeting all praised the significance of this grand event which overcame the barriers of the epidemic. They expressed that the dialogue fully explored the practical significance of promoting city internationalization through cultural exchanges between eastern and western cities, and demonstrated the charm of multiculturalism.

The cooperation among diversified cultures can lead to complementation, harmony and peace. By adhering to an open and inclusive attitude, actively participating in international cultural exchanges, and demonstrating unique styles, various regional and national cultures will surely shine with vigor in the process of city internationalization.

The opening ceremony of the Cultural Festival and the Dialogue were broadcast live online, with a total of 4.0731 million views. At the same time, Fuzhou and its friendship cities have released 22 cultural videos from participating cities on Chinese and international mainstream social media platforms, such as CMG Mobile, Baidu, Toutiao, TikTok, Kuaishou, Sina Weibo, WeChat video accounts, Twitter, YouTube and so on. Each video has been produced in 5 languages, including Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Portuguese, with the aim of expanding the coverage and influence, and inviting a wide range of audiences around the world to enjoy the cultural extravaganza.