Jackie Chan in Janadriyah?

JEDDAH: Chinese action superstar Jackie Chan has been invited to attend the 28th Janadriyah National Festival of Heritage and Culture as a cultural ambassador. China will be the guest of honor this year at the festival, where it will showcase the essence of Chinese culture, economic achievements, and scientific innovations. The event will start on April 4.
“We are honored to be this year’s guest of honor and we have sent an invitation to Jackie Chan to attend as he is the cultural ambassador. We have a role to showcase our traditions and cultures at the event,” said Li Chengwen, Chinese ambassador in Riyadh. “We are still waiting for a confirmation from his side to attend and as soon as we know for sure, we will spread the word to make people come and join us at the festival,” he added.
Every year, the popular Saudi heritage festival invites a different country to attend as a guest to showcase its cultural tradition and heritage alongside the Saudi heritage. The Janadriyah festival showcased its events at the Chinese Capital Museum in Beijing, wherein Chan received a certificate appointing him as an honorary chairman of his country’s pavilion at the festival.
A press conference was held last Monday and was attended by officials from the Chinese Ministry of Culture, Beijing municipality and organizing committees, in addition to the Saudi Ambassador to China, Yahya Al-Zaid, and representatives of agencies that will participate in the festival.
Deputy Director General of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations at the Chinese Ministry of Culture, Zhang Aiping, and Al-Zaid were pleased about the participation of China in Janadriyah as a guest of honor.
Aiping and Al-Zaid later exchanged flags that read in Chinese and Arabic, “China is a country shining beauty,” which is the slogan adopted by China for the festival.
The event will be an opportunity to highlight the robustness of the relations between Saudi Arabia and China in the political, economic and cultural areas, according to Chengwen. “The Saudi public and Arabs will have a good opportunity to gain insights into the rich Chinese culture through the special stand at the Janadriyah festival,” he added.