The First Shanghai International Arts Festival opened yesterday in Shanghai thanks to a year's effort made for the gala.

Approved by the State Council, the Festival is a comprehensive state-class international gathering sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and organized by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. As is reported, the festival is going to be held once a year in Shanghai since this event.

The Shanghai International Arts Festival aims to compare notes on stage performing arts by Chinese and foreign artists in the main. Focusing on national characteristics and an exchange of artistic achievements by artists and a combination of learning from each other, the Festival has been open and will be on until December 1. During a month time, there will be 31 performances of artistic works and theatricals both from China and abroad. Of these, fine artistic works and theatricals from Hong Kong and Macao run to 15. Also, 20 more congratulatory choice artistic works and theatricals will be staged. During the festival days, along with wide exchanges conducted by Chinese and foreign artists on the art of stage performance, a grand African Arts Exhibition, Arts Exposition and Asian Music Festival will be held in a diversified colorful way. The First Shanghai International Arts Festival is not only a grand demonstration of world arts and gathering of artists but also a great get-together of people loving peace and arts from all over the world.

The Chinese nation has a great tradition with a long history of culture development. With its powerful cultural roots striking deep into the fertile soil of the Chinese land, it embraces all fines cultures and arts from all over the world. Since the founding of the New China, especially after launching of reform and opening up, the country has conducted cultural exchanges on a greater scale and a higher plane. The First Shanghai International Arts Festival will promote the cultural exchange of China with its foreign counterparts and help the Chinese people to learn from fine international cultural achievements and expand and spread the influence of Chinese culture throughout the world. By their participation in the Shanghai Festival foreign artists from abroad will deepen their friendship with the Chinese people and achieve greater understanding about China in contributing to a great development of world civilization. They will be helped further to know more about the Chinese people and their great achievements in carrying forward their cultural tradition for artistic creation. To learn from all fine international cultures and arts and create a new socialist popular culture oriented to modernization makes the glorious arduous bounden duty of Chinese artists. Our artistic workers should hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory and gather closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core. By sticking to the direction of "serving the people and socialism" and the policy of "let one hundred flowers bloom and one hundred schools contend" they must see to it that more and greater artistic works are created and flourishing socialist culture and arts in China.

The 21st century is approaching us. At the turn of the millennium, such a high-standard influential international arts festival will lay a solid foundation of cultural artistic exchanges between the Chinese nation and other world peoples. Let us meet in Shanghai during the golden Autumn days to enjoy the happy cultural achievements of the world peoples. Let us use our song to usher in the new 21st century.

Congratulations on making a complete success of the First Shanghai International Arts Festival in China!