Creating synergy
China DailyLaurent Bili, French ambassador to China. Laurent Bili, French ambassador to China, says each year the festival provides Chinese and French artists new opportunities to collaborate and highlight their work. As 2021 marks the centenary of the death of French composer Camille Saint-Saens, the Chinese musical group DNA Trio, comprising pianist Zhang Jialin, violinist Zhang Jingye and cellist Song Zhao, together with composer Zhou Jing, will present a tribute concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on June 24. The works of Saint-Saens, along with those of French composers Cesar Franck and Hector Berlioz, will also be available online, with a concert performed by Orchestre National de France at the Paris Philharmonic concert hall, which will be streamed on Chinese platforms Bilibili and Sina Weibo to accommodate a wider audience amid COVID-19 travel restrictions. Qfun Theater, a troupe dedicated to children's drama education in China since 2013, has worked alongside Hybridites France-Chine, an organization founded in France that promotes France-China artistic exchanges, in adapting Flowers in the Mirror by Chinese novelist Li Ruzhen into a stage play.