(Cinema 5, Venice Grand Canal Mall, 3:30pm, 11 December, 2022)

Your Excellencies Ambassadors, and Colleagues of the Diplomatic Corps,

Your honorable Mr. Wilson Sy, Vice President of the Megaworld Corporation,

Your honorable Mr. Graham Coates, Head of the Megaworld Lifestyle Malls,

Your honorable Mr. David Fabros, Representative from the Film Development Council of the Philippines,

Your honorable Ms. Diana Sabado, Representative from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB),

Distinguished Guests, Friends,

Good afternoon. It’s a great pleasure to meet you all here at the Opening Ceremony of the China Film Festival to witness yet another highlight of China-Philippines cultural exchanges. On behalf of Chinese Embassy, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the China Film Archive&China Film Arts Research Center, MTRCB, the Megaworld Corporation and others for making this event possible.

The Film combines spatial art and time art, and demonstrates the latest development in science and technology and other artistic expressions. It serves as a medium for recording human history and a carrier for cultural exchanges worldwide. Outstanding films are capable of reflecting people’s real life and inner world, and offering us a genuine insight into the realities and cultural traditions of different countries and societies.

Over the past decade, China’s film industry has been growing rapidly. In 2021, the number of movie viewers reached 1.17 billion. The overall box office reached 6.9 billion US dollar, and the total number of screens exceeded 82,000, both of which ranked first in the world. With a total of 740 films were produced in the last year, Chinese and overseas audience were able to see more quality “Chinese blockbusters” on the screen, and better appreciate the Chinese spirit and values in an artistic fashion.

The movie we are about to watch, The Wandering Earth, tells a fictional story that human beings, faced with a dying Sun, launched “The Wandering Earth” plan to move the earth to a new star system. Using the cinematic language, the movie sheds light on the concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind” underpinned by unity and solidarity, and depicts how ordinary people behave remarkably in the face of danger.

From classic animations to contemporary comedies, from realistic works to sci-fiction blockbusters, this China film festival is going to be the epitome of the development of China’s film industry, presenting the Philippine audience a visual feast. We hope this film festival will bring our two peoples closer and enhance the friendship and mutual understanding between us.

Distinguished guests and friends

Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Philippines relations are now facing new opportunities of development. We identified agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people and cultural exchanges as the four priority areas of cooperation, and aim to become good neighbors, good relatives and good partners and usher in a new “golden age” of our bilateral relations.

Not long ago, in his meeting with President Marcos Jr. in Bangkok, President Xi Jinping stressed that we need to take more concrete steps to increase people-to-people and cultural exchanges to cement public support for China-Philippines friendship. This has charted a course for deepening cultural exchanges and mutual learning between our two countries.

China is now moving forward on a new journey towards building a modern socialist country in all respects, and will advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. Chinese modernization is the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement. On the way forward, we will continue to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and the Philippines, and better present Chinese culture to the Philippines and beyond.

I am confident that this Chinese Film Festival will deepen the Philippine people’s understanding of the Chinese society and culture, and promote exchanges and cooperation between our film industries.

I wish the China Film Festival a great success!

Thank you all.