Hands across the water

Guillermo Pulido Gonzalez, director of the Mexican Studies Center in Beijing Foreign Studies University, has initiated many cultural exchange programs between China and Mexico. Wang Jing / China Daily

Exchange with music

Pulido is extremely proud of a program for Chinese and Mexican musicians who toured each other's country with performances and lectures: not classical musicians, but folk musicians who brought their sounds to new audiences, including Lan Weiwei, a pipa player from the Central Conservatory of Music.

Lan has worked with the center for several years. She met Pulido at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, when the diplomat introduced her to a Mexican folk band called White Monkey. They ended up playing a few gigs at the Beijing-based conservatory, which were "so successful" that the musicology department invited them to do a workshop.

A year and half later, Lan and her colleagues went to the National Music School of Mexico and met musicologists there.

More exchanges ensued. Interest ran so high that a Mexican music festival was launched in 2013 in Beijing with two bands and more than 20 Mexican musicians participating. In 2015, right after the Chinese New Year, 15 Chinese musicians and music scholars returned the favor, giving seven lectures and three concerts in Mexico City.

Lan and her peers savored the pride Mexicans have in their own culture and achievements. She recalls an incident in which her group went to visit Mexico's national library on a day off. Finding out about their origin and purpose, the guard showed them around and explained in detail about the facilities, despite the fact their understanding of Spanish was limited.

Although mainly at the academic level, exchanges initiated by Pulido's center, a collaboration between UNAM and BFSU, are reaching an ever-widening audience.

In 2014, there were 87 international events that attracted 5,889 people, 80 percent of which were Chinese students and teachers. The cultural events include photography exhibitions, film festivals and the showcasing of classical Mexican songs.

Mexican movies enjoyed great popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when China first opened up and started importing foreign films. Such images give visceral and dynamic impressions of the country, but Pulido cautions that they represent only a slice of the rich diversity Mexico embodies.

Pablo Mendoza, who works at the center, is actually a filmmaker who graduated from the Beijing Film Academy. He is developing a project about a Mexican pilot who works for a Chinese airline. With seeds like this cross-pollinating and tended by Pulido and his staff, it seems the sky is the limit across the Pacific Ocean for the two cultures to embrace each other.

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Crossing the pond, landing with a thud

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