政府新闻

上海与巴黎举行《两河对话创新无界》论坛 2024-04-21

Vincent Louault, vice-president of the French Senate's France-China Group, makes a speech during the opening ceremony of an event named Our Water, To a Boundless Future last Thursday in Paris.

Last Thursday, a launch ceremony and forum entitled Our Water, To a Boundless Future, took place at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and this year's Franco-Chinese Year of Cultural Tourism.

The event was initiated by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, organized by Shanghai United Media Group and Shanghai International Culture Association, and co-hosted by different parties from both countries.

More than 100 representatives of the political, business, academic, and artistic communities in both countries attended the event, including Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in France Chen Li, Vice-President of the French Senate's France-China Group Vincent Louault, Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University's College and Academician of the French Academy of Architecture Wu Jiang, Chief Designer of the Shanghai Expo Park and Dean of the French Academy of Architecture Martin Robain, Professor at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts Chen Jialing, Director of the Cernuschi Asian Art Museum in France Eric Lefebvre, and General Manager of Paris la Défense Pierre-Yves Guice.

"Shanghai and Paris bring us together today, with water being an indelible part of our shared history," said Louault in his opening ceremony speech.

"Water is key to enabling us to face the future, as in confronting climate change and the various threats it brings, we can only move forward together and collaborate to ensure our future."

He concluded that looking ahead, the two cities can collaborate in various aspects including urban governance, sustainable development, and economic and cultural exchanges, with water as a medium.

Event organizers gave the French party welcoming gifts including a Shanghai city image album entitled Shanghai: Infinite Possibilities, a specially created painted porcelain plate of irises, by artist Chen Jialing, and a themed scarf entitled Dialogue between Two Rivers.

The forum focused on the cultural connection between Shanghai and Paris, as well as their urban development, and explored the opportunities created for dialogue between the East and the West by the 60th anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations.

Keynote speakers Wu Jiang and Martin Robain shared their insights on the sustainable development of waterfront cities in relation to rivers and historical heritage.

Wu Jiang pointed out that the geographical location of river convergence impacted urban development, using the transformation of public spaces along the Suzhou Creek as an example. Today, the banks of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek have not only become a public open space and a green cultural ecological space, but also a historical and cultural heritage. He also mentioned that going back centuries, Shanghai's geographical location and easy river accessibility have made trade easy.

Robain mentioned the efforts being made for the 2024 Paris Olympics in areas including environmental protection, resource recycling and circular economy, as well as the reduction of noise and disturbances. He said that through events such as the Paris Olympics and the Shanghai World Expo, the cities have seized opportunities to engage in beneficial exploration and practice for the progress of human civilization and the well-being of urban residents.

The forum's first roundtable, entitled Source of Urban Inspiration, was chaired by Myriam Kryger, former cultural consul of the French Consulate General in Shanghai. Together with several other French and Chinese speakers from the field of the humanities and art, they exchanged opinions on topics including the arts, literature, gastronomy, urban transformation as well as the cities' symbiotic relationship with rivers.

At the end of this discussion, all speakers were asked to choose a word to unite the cities of Shanghai and Paris. Chen Jialing pointed out that in Chinese, the character "法" (fa) in "法国" (France) contains the radical for "water," the character "黎" (li) in "巴黎" (Paris) includes the element of water, and the character "海" (hai) in "上海" (Shanghai) also incorporates the water element, so the common theme linking the two cities is water.

Lefebvre suggested love for art, Yuan Xiaoyi, dean of Simian Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at East China Normal University, said open-mindedness. André Cointreau, global president of Le Cordon Bleu International, said universalism, and Liu Shilin, dean of the Institute of Urban Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, chose romantic as the common point.

In the second roundtable, Innovation Beyond Borders, business leaders and representatives from various sectors started from the spirit of water, and discussed innovation and cooperation across different fields and industries, from different perspectives.

This inaugural season of Our Water Paris series began on April 5 and will last for 18 days in total, featuring forum, painting, architecture, visual arts, and cuisine, presenting a mosaic of the charm of Sino-French cultural and artistic exchanges.

Chen Li (left), minister counselor of the Chinese Embassy in France, and Yin Xin (right), director of the Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office, presented a gift to Martin Robain (second from left), chief designer of the Shanghai Expo Park, academician and dean of the French Academy of Architecture, and Eric Lefebvre (second from right), director of the Cernuschi Asian Art Museum in France a Shanghai city image album entitled Shanghai: Infinite Possibilities during the opening ceremony last Thursday.

Li Yun (left), president of Shanghai United Media Group, and Shanghai-style artist Chen Jialing (right) jointly presented a gift to Vincent Louault, vice-president of the French Senate's France-China Group, during the opening ceremony last Thursday.

Ding Baoding (left), chairman of the Jing'an District Political Consultative Conference in Shanghai, presented a themed scarf entitled Dialogue between Two Rivers to Pierre-Yves Guice, general manager of Paris la Défense during the opening ceremony last Thursday.

Wu Jiang, professor at Tongji University's College of Architecture and Urban Planning and academician of the French Academy of Architecture, made a keynote speech during the event in Paris last Thursday.

Martin Robain, chief designer of the Shanghai Expo Park and academician and dean of the French Academy of Architecture, made a keynote speech during the event in Paris last Thursday.