Exhibition "Beautiful China, Picturesque Zheijiang” on the occasion of Chinese Language Day

The speech was delivered by Francesco Pisano, Director of the Library, on behalf of the Director-General

Ambassador Ma,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Welcome to the inauguration of the exhibition “Beautiful China, Picturesque Zheijiang“. Unfortunately, the Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva, Mr. Michael Møller, cannot be with us today. He has asked me to deliver the following remarks on his behalf, and I quote:

“Ambassador Ma,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

A warm welcome to the exhibition “Beautiful China, Picturesque Zheijiang“ which we are opening today on the occasion of the Chinese Language Day. This remarkable exhibition will be on display until 28 April 2017.

My wholehearted thank you to Ambassador Ma and the Permanent Mission of China for organizing today’s event and for inviting us to a reception afterwards.

This exhibition gives us the chance to admire distinct works of art and a life demonstration of Chinese calligraphy and fan-painting as well as a tea ceremony.

The Language Days, that have been marked at the UN since 2010, seek to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and to promote the equal use of all six official languages throughout our Organization.

The day for the Chinese language, 20 April, was chosen to pay tribute to Cangjie, a legendary figure who is thought to have invented the Chinese characters some 5,000 years ago.

Chinese is quite an impressive language. There are over 100,000 Chinese characters and the number continues to grow as new characters are constantly added. It takes knowledge of some 3,000 characters to be able to read a newspaper.

On this day, we salute all the UN staff promoting the Chinese language our interpreters and translators, as well as our colleagues at the UN website and Chinese UN Radio. We also salute our language teachers and the ambitious staff taking on the challenge of learning Chinese as a foreign language. And I know what I am talking about because I have tried it myself.

Chinese language and culture are very much alive here in International Geneva:

Chinese nationals are among the most frequent visitors who come to the Palais des Nations for guided tours.

The UNOG Library keeps a unique collection of files from the League of Nations archives specifically relating to China, representing approximately 300,000 pages. The files span the period 1919-1946 and cover a range of political and technical issues.

China is a frequent contributor to the UNOG Cultural Activities Programme. In 2016, three cultural events were held - one on calligraphy, one on Yunnan Province traditions and a concert of classical music. The Permanent Mission of China organized the "Art China" exhibition during the open day in 2015 and participated in the P5 joint concert marking the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.

Thank you once more to Ambassador Ma and the Permanent Mission of China for continuously enriching our cultural programme and for providing us with ample opportunity to celebrate the linguistic and cultural diversity of our planet here at the Palais des Nations.

Thank you and I wish you an enjoyable event.”

This was the end of the Director-General’s message.

Let me join the Director-General in thanking Ambassador Ma and the Permanent Mission of China for organizing today’s event, for adding some culinary highlights and also for their continued support of the cultural programme here at the Palais des Nations.