The city of Busan will open the 2018 East Asian Cultural City in Busan with an opening ceremony on April 12th at the Busan Cultural Center.
The Culture City of East Asia project is a three-nation event based on the agreement established during the Japan, China and South Korea Culture Ministers’ Meeting. The project selects one city in each of these three countries in which to hold various cultural activities in the fields of contemporary art, traditional arts and the culture of everyday life, aiming to deepen mutual understanding and build a sense of solidarity in the East Asian region, as well as enhancing the ability of intercultural communication according to its website.
The 2018 East Asian Cultural City in Busan plans to hold various performances, festivals and cultural exchanges until the end of the year, beginning with the opening ceremony in mid-April which is expected to host 2,000 people.
On April 13th, the Busan Port International Exhibition and Convention Center will host the East Asian Cultural City opening ceremony reception and the East Asian Traditional Orchestra performance at the Busan Cultural Center.
Also on June 22, the East Asia Peace Concert will be held in Busan Cultural Center where three orchestras are performing. On June 23-24, Busan Citizen Park will host the ‘East Asian Traditional Street Arts Festival’ with Korean Maestros and Namsadang, Chinese Harbin Shadow Performers and Japanese Kanazawa Matsuri performers.
Busan also has various cultural exchanges such as “East Asian Culture City in Busan” to be held April 22 – May 21 at the Seoul Film Center and “East Asian Cultural Diversity Festival” on May 21 at F1963.
The closing ceremony will be held on December 7 at BEXCO Auditorium and a joint declaration will be held on December 8th at F1963, which will discuss ongoing exchanges and development of the cultural cities of Korea, China and Japan.
Harbin City was selected China’s representative city and Kanazawa was selected for Japan.
