Chinese culture has great attraction for people both at home and abroad. We have seen many people from around the world express their love for Chinese culture in different forms. A growing number of foreigners have even chosen to live in China for its culture.
Interested in Chinese classical literature, Canadian artist Brandon Collins-Green or Lin Buran in Chinese expresses his understanding of A Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin and Chinese poems through thousands of paintings. Often painting throughout the night, he has created more than 4,200 works. Living alone in the center of Nanchang, he has come a long way since he first came here in 2015 to study ancient Chinese literature.
Brandon loves learning about the lifestyle of ancient Chinese people. "So far, I have read the novel three times, translated most of its poems, songs, lantern riddles (谜语), and dialogues into English, and completed over 1 million words of articles and 2,000 related paintings during my PhD studies," said Brandon with pride and satisfaction.
Timur Kuvatov, director-general and editor-in-chief of the Kazakhstan Today News Agency, is a Chinese kung fu fan. He has won kung fu championships a lot of times and also served as a coach for the Kazakhstan kung fu team. "Chinese kung fu is a treasure of Chinese culture. It is not just a sport but also reflects the Chinese way of dealing with people, their understanding of life, nature, and the world," he said.
Vincent Cazeneuve, known as Wensen Qi in Chinese, is a French artist devoted to lacquer (漆器) creation. He came to live in Chongqing in 2009. His works have been shown in art institutions both in and outside of China, and his fans have even collected some of them.
What is the charm of Chinese culture that attracts these people? It lies in its richness and openness. Also its cultural background differences make foreigners curious about the lifestyles, way of thinking, and values of the country.