Feature: China's rural traditions showcased at Expo Milano 2015

An exhibition held here at the China Pavilion of the Milan world exhibition from Wednesday to Friday showcased the value of China's ancient agricultural tradition in today's world of innovation.

The exhibition, organized by the Fine Art College of Shanghai University and Shanghai Public Art Cooperation Center (PACC), focused on pioneering spirit, touristic potential and cultural promotion of the Chinese rural world.

Chinese tea, bamboo fans and other bamboo crafts were on display at the exhibition. "I think the themes of this exhibition perfectly combine with China Pavilion's theme 'Land of Hope, Food for Life,' Chinese Vice Consul in Milan Huang Yongyue said presenting the exhibition to international visitors.

"China is a big agricultural country. Thanks to rapid development of recent decades, Chinese farmers have significantly improved their life conditions. However, now besides economic wealth they are also aiming at something more," he added.

Huang explained to local experts and viewers that the exhibition is the opportunity to present to the world a variety of elements that are a lively part of Chinese rural traditions, from ancient handicraft to profound research of balance and harmony with nature.

In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the exhibition, Wang Dawei, Dean of the Fine Art College of Shanghai University, explained how in the era of global exchanges China wants to seize the opportunity of cultural dialogue brought by the new "Belt and Road" initiative.

Launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative envisages a huge network of infrastructural and cultural projects to revive the ancient route and promote integration of different cultures and populations along the line, Wang noted.

"We are here to show how the millenary traditions of China can be complementary to the modern world," Jin Jiangbo, Art Doctor of the Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Xinhua.

Over the past days, their delegation met with Italian experts to learn from the successful experience of promotion and valorization of the Mediterranean nation's countryside, and also explore collaboration opportunities. Farm holiday, just to make an example, has had very successful development in Italy and can be exported to China as a model of countryside valorization, they noted.

An aspect which deserves deep cultural exchange is the valorization of rural architecture in China, said Maurizio Meriggi, an architecture professor at Politecnico di Milano, a world-renowned scientific and technological university based in Milan.

"Since 2007 we have started to collaborate with Chinese authorities to preserve cultural heritage in different villages, like the beautiful Hakka ones, which have very rich architectural forms combining painting and sculpture with natural landscape," he explained.

The key issue, Meriggi highlighted, is planning the future of China's rural areas with cultural heritage into the future of modern cities. "We like to call this kind of city a Green City," he said.

On Friday the China Pavilion, which exhibits the country's agricultural history, food culture and its future expectation to the world, was awarded by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) among the pavilions with best architecture at the Milan Expo for its "roof that reminds of China's rural architecture."

With a surface of 4,590 square meters, the China Pavilion was the country's first self-built overseas expo pavilion and also the second largest foreign one next to Germany's at Expo Milano 2015. Endit