More surprises and excitements await you on January 27 as the seventh episode of The Beauty of Shared Arts, a large-scale program of international cultural exchanges, airs on CCTV-1 General at 20:00. Join us as we delve into the artworks with unique characteristics, share stories behind cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and explore the wonderful new era of people-to-people exchanges and mutual learning.

In this episode, we are transported to Denmark, known as the Kingdom of Fairy Tales, located in Northern Europe. China and Denmark have engaged in a century-long artistic exchange centered around papercuts. Surprisingly, the renowned fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was a skilled paper cutting artist. Mr. Eric Messerschmidt, Director/Head at the Danish Cultural Center, shares this intriguing fact in the program. Andersen would craft paper cutouts while telling his captivating stories to the audience. In his eyes, the cutouts were meant as stories in and of themselves: “a whole cut fairy tale.” Ms. LU Xue, President at the Chinese Arts Papercutting Association, also joins the program. Her paper cutting artwork, inspired by Andersen’s fairy tales, is now showcased in the Hans Christian Andersen Museum and has earned her the prestigious Order of the Dannebrog, the highest honor for non-Danish citizens. During the show, Ms. LU teaches the guests to make a paper cutting of the Chinese character “春”, which means “spring” in English, spreading the warmth and enthusiasm of the Chinese New Year to a global audience. This episode also features the song performance, The World of Fairy Tales, by Chinese singer YAO Chen and Danish singer Louise McClelland Jacobsen. The perfect fusion of inspiring melodies and Chinese rap is reminiscent of the moment Chinese traditional papercutting meets Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. Despite the distance of over 7,000 kilometers that separates us, the arts have built a bridge connecting the two cultures and created an enchanting fairy tale shared by all.

Tune in to the seventh episode of The Beauty of Shared Arts on CCTV-1 General at 8:00 PM on January 27 to enjoy the dialogue of friendship nourished by cultural exchange.