夏伟致欢迎辞：希望文化成为中美融和剂

2011年11月16日，首届中美文艺论坛将在北京拉开帷幕。此次为期四天的盛会由中国人民对外友好协会、美国亚洲协会及阿斯彭学会联合主办，旨在加强中美两国在文化领域的交流和理解。下为主办方负责人夏伟欢迎致辞。

中美文化艺术论坛嘉宾夏伟

这次的中国之行恰逢一个特别有趣的时期。今天的中国不仅在文化、社会和经济等领域经历着巨大的变化，在外交政治方面也正经历着重要的转折。目前中美 两国关系正处于一个微妙转化的阶段。中国的崛起以及美国近年来接连在经济和政治领域所遇到的挑战，引发了人们对当前国际均势格局、以及各国之间相互竞争的 发展模式和政治模式之效绩的新思考。这种变化导致的不仅是一点政治姿态，更使得双方不可避免地开始猜测和揣摩对方的意图，甚至产生无端的恐惧。

现实迫使我们承认，除非中美两国能够找全新的、更加有建设性和行之有效的互动方式，一系列重大的全球性问题，包括气候变化、核扩散、国际贸易以及公 共健康等，将很难得到应有重视和得以解决。因此，尽管我们在政治制度，文化和历史经验等方面存在着差异和分歧，我坚持认为，中美两国必须加倍努力去寻找新 的、有建设性的合作途径。

我个人认为，这意味着两国之间的接触不应该局限于政治渠道，更应该将合作精神贯彻到我们生活中的其它领域。文化就是其中之一。同谈判桌相比，文化给 各国提供了更为轻松的，可以提供乐趣和促进相互理解的交流平台。因此我们认为一次由民间，而不是官方来发起和组织的文化交流活动是有所值的。

有鉴于此，同为在外交领域耕耘多年的民间机构──亚洲协会与阿斯彭学会，这一次将自己曾经合作过的在艺术、音乐、文学、舞蹈和电影等各领域的朋友们 和同事们汇聚在一起，带到中国。我们不知道这样的努力是否能够真正改变中美之间的博弈。目前尚没有人能够提供准确的方法来评估此类活动的效果。尽管如此，我们仍然坚信，文化往往能够成为国家之间更好的融和剂。因此，我们所有访问团的成员都对此次中国之行抱着极大的期待。我们相信，通过与不同背景 的业界同行合作，这次活动将充满乐趣。我们更加期待这样的合作能够帮助我们在中国错综复杂的文化罗盘上找到与更多中国同行合作的机会。

This is an extremely interesting time for all of us to be in China, not just because of the tectonic changes that have been sweeping through its culture, society, and economy, but because it is also a critical moment politically speaking.There is much about US-China relations these days that is in a state of flux.China’s“rise”and recent American economic and political challenges have heaved up interesting questions not only about the global balance of power, but the effectiveness of the various developmental and political models that are competing around the world.Not surprisingly, this has led to much uncertainty, even fear, about the intentions of the other side and not a little political posturing。

The reality of our present world compels us to acknowledge that, unless our two countries find new ways to interact in more constructive and productive ways, there will be a whole host of critical global problems such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, world trade and global epidemics which will remain unaddressed and unsolved.Thus, despite the differences in our political systems, culture and historical experiences, it has become my conviction that the two countries must redouble their efforts to find new ways to stay constructively engaged。

For me, this means that the two countries must engage not only on policy questions, but in other areas of life as well.Since culture offers an alternative arena where enjoyment, as well as mutual understanding, is often more easily had than from across a negotiating table, we felt it would be worthorganizing a cultural exchange that grew out of a private, rather than a government-sponsored, initiative。

So, the Asia Society and the Aspen Institute, both of which have worked for many years in the foreign policy field, banded together a group of friends and colleagues from the worlds of the arts, music, literature, dance, and film to take a collective trip to China.Whether such an effort will actually change the terms of the Sino-US game, we do not know.No one can accurately assess its effect with any meaningful metric.Nonetheless, we feel that culture is often a better solvent than state-to-state negotiations.So, we Americans all look forward to our time together in China with immense anticipation.Being able to look into the worlds of our colleagues from other disciplines will be an enormous pleasure, as will the opportunity to be in China with Chinese colleagues from so many points of the Chinese cultural compass rose。

― Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, New York, USA