As the breeze rustles the ginkgo leaves, the charm of autumn fills the air. To enrich campus life with culturally meaningful and creatively vibrant activities and to cultivate influential cultural brands, the “Boundless Art, Shared Culture”2025 International Cultural Exchange Festival, organized by the International Department of the College of Chinese and ASEAN Arts at Chengdu University, was held at Xinkongjian Plaza on October 28. As a selected campus cultural project for 2025 and a branded activity of the college, this year's festival continued its core mission of connecting Chinese and global cultures while introducing new content and formats. Featuring characteristic booths from over twenty countries, intangible cultural heritage displays, and creative flash performances, the event adopted a ‘co-creation + experience + sharing’ model to present an international festival that was both visually engaging and highly participatory.
Art Co-creation: Extending the Cultural Impact of the Festival
At 9:00 AM, under the guidance of German expert Imke Lohmann, over twenty Chinese and international students began the “Festival Art Co-creation” project, collectively painting an art installation themed around “Festival”. As one of the core highlights of the Exchange Festival, this project incorporated characteristic patterns and cultural symbols from over twenty countries including Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, and Pakistan. Through the artistic expression of ink and graffiti, these elements intertwined. Each brushstroke served as a vivid interpretation of cultural understanding, and every application of paint was filled with sincere passion for cross-cultural integration. The finished art installation from this collective creation will subsequently be exhibited at the Chengdu ASEAN Art Museum, becoming a distinctive photo spot popular with students and extending the cultural impact from a “one-day event” to a lasting presence on campus.
Global Exhibitions: Over 20 Country Booths Create an “Immersive Material Library”
The venue featured a dazzling array of cultural booths from more than 20 countries across Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America. Visitors encountered the vibrant radiant Nyonya culture of Malaysia, the fragrant frangipani of Laos, the creative charm of Mexican Calaverita handicrafts, and the reconstruction of distinctive landscapes through Bhutan's unique window scene setup... Lively photos, text, and short video allowed guests to capture moments of global cutural expression at any time.
From Moroccan afternoon tea to Thai specialty snacks and Vietnamese rice paper rolls, diverse culinary offerings created a delightful blend of international flavors. While enjoying the unique culinary experiences, participants could learn about different cultures through interactive games at various booths. This became a popular topic of conversation among Chinese and international students. Meanwhile, each booth provided “My International Circle of Friends” sticker collection sheets. Visitors could collect “Hello” stickers from various countries, allowing cultural memories to be preserved in a fun way.
This year's event innovatively set up various country-specific “designated scenario exhibitions”. At the site of the Laotian millennia-old “Baci Blessing Ceremony”, Laotian students softly chanted around a “Blessing Tower” constructed from banana leaves and flowers, then gently tied white cotton threads, symbolizing purity, onto participants' wrists, carrying their good wishes. In the Malaysian Nyonya “Toss the Mandarin for Good Fortune” activity, mandarins adorned with gold edges floated in basins filled with clear water. Teachers and students wrote their wishes, tossed them into the water, and exchanged blessings with international friends who caught the mandarins. These heartwarming scenes allowed attendees to experience the charm of various national customs and added memorable stories of cross-cultural friendship.
Vibrant Flash Mobs: Creating “Warm Communication Topics”
Contrasting with the “tranquility” of the multi-national booths was the “energy” of the flash performances. The stage featured a successive lineup of pleasant surprises: the Malaysian Bamboo Dance, the Laotian ethnic dance “Where the Heart Belongs, the Ritual is Complete”, and the Indonesian songs and dances “Nusantara Crew” and “Dance by Taranusa”. Students from Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan contributed performances with distinct cultural styles, while students from Colombia and Ecuador offered elegant instrumental pieces. Performances from Vietnam and Thailand pushed the event to wave after wave of excitement. The finale, a grand multinational student chorus “Meeting in the Song”, won rounds of applause.
A Small Campus Stage, A Grand Dialogue of Civilizations
As one cultural feast concluded, a new journey of civilizational dialogue set sail. In October, Chengdu University wrote a splendid chapter of youth with diversity and inclusion. From a cotton thread carrying blessings to a co-created painting, from a sweet taste of exotic food to a melody appreciated together, from a sticker sheet filled with "Hellos" to the collaborative efforts of Chinese and international teachers and students in setting up exhibitions side-by-side—this grand event not only facilitated the mutual appreciation of diverse cultures through teacher-student exchange but also showcased the sustained results of Chengdu University's years of internationalized education.
Editors: Feng Yubing, Su Zhouheng, Liu Xinyi Executive Editor: Lyu Jia
