Chinese-Tibetan
Cultural Exchange Meet Held in Australia[Monday, 13 December 2010, 4:11 p.m.]

A speaker talks during the cultural exchange meet between the Chinese and Tibetan participants held in Australian city of Sydney on 11 December 2010

The Chinese-Tibetan Friendship Association
and the Office of Tibet in Australia jointly organised a cultural
exchange meet in Sydney on Saturday on 11 December to “foster peace and
harmony between the Chinese and Tibetan communities”.Over 70 people, including His Holiness the
Dalai Lama’s Representative to Australia, Mr Sonam Norbu Dagpo, Chinese
liaison officer Ms Dadon, Chinese scholars, writers, students, democracy
activists from Sydney and Adelaide, and former secretary at the Chinese
embassy in Australia, attended the meeting.The event, which
includes interactive debate on the theme “peace and harmony between
Chinese and Tibetans” aims to share ideas and remove biased views and
misunderstandings on both sides.The president of the
Chinese-Tibetan Friendship Association, Ma Lian Qian, said: “The Chinese
government not only brutally suppressed the Tibetan people’s peaceful
protests in 2008, but also fomented serious discord between the two
communities. In order to have an interactive free exchange of ideas and
way of thinking from both sides, we have organised a new way to achieve
that in the form of this cultural exchange meeting.”The
participants held interactive discussion and shared ideas on wide-range
of Tibet related issues, such as religion and culture, human rights and
environmental issues in Tibet, democracy in China and the dialogue
process on Tibet.The question and answer session during the
experts’ talk has helped in promoting the Chinese people’s understanding
of the truth about the Tibetan culture and the real situation in Tibet.
It has also helped in cultivating trust among Tibetans to learn about
China’s culture and strengthening co-ordination with its people, the
office of Tibet said.The next meeting is scheduled to be held in
Melbourne in 2011.