"Festival of China," the largest celebration of the Chinese performing arts in American history, will debut in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the US this October.

Alisia Adams, vice president of the Kennedy Center said in Beijing Thursday at a press conference that the Kennedy Center, as the highest artistic institution of the US and the world at large, considers the "Festival of China" the largest cultural activities ever held so far.

According to her, early back to 2001, the Kennedy Center raised proposal to the Chinese side on staging a dozen Chinese performances during its regular performance season. Later, the two sides agreed to jointly present "Festival of China" this October.

Pu Tong, a senior official with the Chinese Ministry of Culture said the festival will include 19 projects, such as Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng's speech to the US culture and media circle, Beijing Culture Week, performances by 13 Chinese artistic troupes, exhibition of terra-cotta warriors and horses, expo on contemporary outdoor installation and sculpture arts, as well as Chinese film show. More than 700 Chinese artists will attend the festival.

Apart from these projects from the Chinese mainland, artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas will also stage 24 performances and eight vision art expos, Pu added.

Adams pointed out that the festival will be opened on Chinese people's National Day, and its schedule is set right in the middle of the exchange visits by President Hu Jintao in September and US President George W. Bush in November.

"The festival has met the best time of the China-US relations," she said, stressing "the US people have noticed that China is playing a more and more important role on the world stage."

According to her, the US audience "have rushed to buy the tickets" for the festival ever since this May, when the Kennedy Center released the news of the festival.

The US mainstream media such as New York Times and Washington Post all gave large coverage of the festival. Statistics showed that an expected 400,000 audience will participate in the festival on the spot, and another one million US people will get access to the festival through TV or Internet.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2005)