Details
This book is a collection of Zhao's 35 speeches and interviews made since 1998,focusing on China's public relations and transcultural communication. They contain interesting examples cited to tell the foreign audience about China,his ingenious ideas on Sino-foreign exchanges as well as his sparkling encounters with international celebrities. The collection best exemplifies Zhao's passion and intelligence as a government spokesman,and his open and candid manner in introducing China's basic stand on its peaceful coexistence with the rest of the world,exchange on equal footing,and efforts to communicate with and integrate into the international community.
He has been a physicist and has earned awards for his technical innovations. He was for a number of years vice mayor of Shanghaiand head of the New Pudong Area, leading a taskforce to spearheadthe construction of this part of the metropolis of Shanghai, where nowskyscrapers dominate the views along the famous Huangpu River. Heis now chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is a professor at theSchool of Journalism at Renmin University in Bei)ing. But perhapsZhao Ojzheng is best known for his role as minister of the State CouncilInformation Office (SCIO), a post he held from 1998 to 2006.
In this capacity he took on the task of explaining China to theoutside world, frequently meeting with international visitors, speakingat forums, answering questions from the world media, delivering speeches to audiences in international organizations like UNESCO and other world arenas such as the Parliament of Korea, and organizing large-scale cultural events best represented by the China Week in Franceand the Chinese Cultural Promotion Festival in the United States,among many others. For the same purpose, he knocked on the doors of many statesmen and CEOs of transnational corporations, chatted with world leaders of all persuasions, scholars of varied academic disciplines and religious leaders of different cultural backgrounds across theworld.
Table of Contents
Speeches
The Chinese People Embark upon the 21st Century
The World must Observe China More Accurately
Chinese Media Welcomes the Internet Age
America and Americans through Chinese Eyes
Asia and the Chinese Economy Following Chinas WTO Accession
Let History Be Rooted Deeply in Our Hearts
The World's Two Most Ancient Peoples
A Hard-won Victory by Nation and Its People
Founding a Friendly Sino-Russian .Century Using Culture as the Link
Crossing the Cultural Barrier to Better Explain China.to the Rest of the World
Creating Cross-cultural Harmony
The Diversity of Civilizations and a Harmonious World
The Role of Public Diplomacy and People-to-People Diplomacy in Sino-American Relations
Relentless Efforts Lead to Great Success
The Revitalization of lingju Begins by Using the Correct Name
Speech at a Press Conference for the Launch of Riverside Talk in the United States
Enlightenment from the Beijing Olympic Games: The Country's Image Is Based on Its Development
Dialogue, a Way to Promote Harmony
Dialogues
We Are Confident that We can, Little by Little, Realize Our Dreams and Goals
Advice to Friends must Come from the Bottom of the Heart
Far-Sighted Entrepreneurs cannot Afford Not to Pay Attention to China
Imbalance in Understanding between Chinese and Americans
US Media Coverage of China Is often Inaccurate
Never Have the Chinese People Enjoyed such a High Level of Human Rights
The Chinese Have Been Fighting for Democracy for over a Hundred Years
Our Common Suffering Strengthens Our Friendship
Japan and the Japanese through Chinese Eyes
The Germans Admire Philosophy, and so do the Chinese
Striding forth with the World's Media
Opening the Historical Door of"Pudong Logic"
Culture Is Wealth, and so Is Friendship
A Dialogue Between a Theist and an Atheist
Talking with Shimon Peres about Wisdom
I Have Confidence in the Strength of the Japanese People
Culture, History and Patriotism
Sample Pages Preview
The reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping began in 1978. Denghimself said that the reforms were revolutionary. He proclaimed thatthe main responsibility of the Chinese government was to developthe country's economy. China's history during this century has madethe Chinese people realize that the two slogans, "adhering to self-re-liance and working hard to build China" and "reforming and openingup" are not contradictory. China thus entered a period of high-speedeconomic development. China's GDP has on average increased by 9.7percent in the past 20 years. As everyone knows, Deng Xiaoping andmany other influential Chinese leaders once studied in France andwere influenced by French culture. This is something I should men-tion here. The Chinese people entered the year of 1900 humiliated and back-wards. One Dutch dictionary from the beginning of the 20th cen-tury, the Standard Dutch Dictionary, defined Chinese people as peoplewho are stupid and mentally backward. Before 1950, Chinese peoplewere also labeled as the "sick men of East Asia." During the 19th century, the terrible habit of binding girls' feet wasvery common in China, among both the rich and the poor. Perhaps theChinese people of that time can be represented by women with smallbound feet, because they entered the 1900 with deformed feet. But the Chinese people will enter the year of 2000 with healthy andfirm strides. The idea that Chinese people could win gold medals ininternational athletic events was inconceivable 50 years ago. Some saythat Chinese women have surpassed Chinese men. This is perhaps true.After all, it is our women who dominate events like volleyball, soccer,gymnastics and swimming. Now I would like to discuss some of the changes that have taken placein Chinese families and women. Then I will move on to discuss changesof a few important Chinese concepts. In the traditional Chinese family, brothers could live under the sameroof even after they married, but girls had to leave the family upon mar-riage.
