FoR many Africans in Beijing, GBD Public Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange Center, formerly known as Bridge Art Center, in the capital’s arterial Chang’an Avenue is a home away from home.
　　The center has held many cultural related activities since its establishment, with a celebration for annual Africa Day on May 25, 2012 being a highlight. Africans and a number of Chinese gathered to commemorate the founding of the organization of African unity in 1963, now known as the African union.
　　“It is amazing to celebrate our own event in this remote country,” Mathil de Kra, an economic counselor from Embassy of Cote d’Ivoire in China, told ChinAfrica. “I feel I am at home as we have African music, dance, decorations and food here, even the [Chinese] working staff are wearing African style dresses,”he added.
　　Ma Zhenxuan, Director of GBD, is committed to promoting friendships with people from Africa. For years, Ma has been using the center as a bridge to foster the cultural communication between China and Africa.
　　“Culture is a more acceptable way when interacting with people from different backgrounds, and it can be a common ground to establish friendships,”Ma told ChinAfrica, calling for more Africans to join the center and make friends with Chinese.
　　A feeling of home
　　As Rome was not built in a day, African people’s recognition of GBD as their home away from home has been gained gradually with a series of heart-warming stories. GBD’s friendship with Africa started in the second half of 2008 when the center held an exhibition for ancient African culture themed as “The Immemorial Gaze.”
　　In the exhibition, about 300 ancient African art works including wood carvings and ivory carvings were displayed. An important art form in African culture, wood carvings, especially African tribal masks, carry ritualistic meanings or express local people’s worship of ancestral spirit.
　　“It was a great success. Visitors came in an endless stream,” Ma recalled, adding that the exhibition helped Chinese learn about the culture of African peoples as each piece of work told an exotic story with its symbolic and societal meanings.
　　Some African painters were also invited to the exhibition and painted there.“By doing so, we show our sincere respect for our African friends,” Ma said. According to him, the center has held many similar exhibitions, which are not only cultural exchange events, but also occasions for peoples from both sides to communicate.
　　In July 2010, when Mohamed Sahbi Basly, then Ambassador of tunisia in China, was about to return to his country, GBD Public Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange Center held a farewell party for him. having known the ambassador’s Western zodiac sign as Pisces and his Chinese zodiac sign as dragon, Ma asked a folk artist to create images of fish and dragon using the blowing molten sugar sculpture, a traditional Chinese handicraft.“Chinese people are as considerate as families. And I will take the memories back to tunisia,” the ambassador said then. he was so moved that he made a half-hour-long impromptu speech to express his thanks for Chinese people’s support and friendship.
　　Caring from family
　　As a home providing a family atmosphere, the center also helps its members when they are in trouble.
　　In February 2009, the Bridge Art Center hosted an African food festival for 48 wives of African ambassadors in China. Each was asked to contribute a dish to the festival. It was a grand international occasion with more than 600 participants from home and abroad.
　　on the occasion, the wives of African ambassadors learned that a Chinese girl named Sun Zhen, who suffered from liver disease, was in need of a liver transplant, but could not afford it. Without hesitation, all of them agreed to raise donations for the girl and promised to help her in the future. “Chinese and African people are families and should support each other,” Sophie, one of the wives of African ambassadors said when handing over the donation to Sun.
　　Chinese people are equally generous to Africans in need. In the same year, a rare drought hit Kenya, causing a lot of Kenyans to suffer from famine. to express Chinese people’s caring, the Bridge Art Center called for Chinese enterprises to donate food for people in the faminestricken area. About 100 tons of foodstuffs were raised and supplied. “We did something we could to help Kenyans to fight against the natural disaster,” Ma recalled.
　　With all of these specific efforts, Ma Zhenxuan won the hearts of Africans and his art center was given the title of“home for Africans” in June 2011. “I don’t expect instant benefits by contact with Africans, but hope to establish solid friendships in the long run,” Ma told ChinAfrica.
　　At the opening ceremony for “home for Africans” the center was commissioned to host annual celebrations for Africa Day in the future and activities such as China-Africa trade fairs, economic forums, cultural exchanges and tourism promotion.
　　Knowing the frequency
　　Ma Zhenxuan is philosophical about what makes friendships, relationships and cross cultural connections. he believes when people resonate on the same frequency, irrespective of their culture, they can talk, learn and understand more about each other. This ultimately leads to sharing in the fruit born from these relationships. Ma said, when he spoke about frequency he meant a common ground in fields such as life habits and folk customs.
　　Ma further explained that knowing the likes and dislikes of others was part of the process of developing relationships.
　　“The thing you regarded as noble may not be understood in the same way by others,” Ma said. “to make true friends with others, we should actively adjust our frequency to others’ and find the most appropriate way of communicating with them,” he told ChinAfrica.
　　Currently, a new building to be named“Africa Center” with an area of about 24,000 square meters is under construction. Ma hopes the center will attract more Africans and that they will regard it as their home.