The festival?s director said Hungary would be the guest of honour at the festival and a special Hungarian week would be organised during the programme. The previous guest of honour at the festival, which attracts more and more visitors each year, reaching half a million last year, was Mexico.
Hiller and a delegation from Hungary also held talks on a six-week Hungarian cultural programme in China slated for the autumn of 2007 as well as Hungary?s participation at the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai during the week-long official visit to China ended Friday.
The six-week cultural programme, called ?Hungarian Autumn?, will showcase Hungarian music, literature and education. It will take place in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai from the middle of September, 2007, until the beginning of November. Most of the costs of the programme will be covered by Hungary?s central budget, but both Hungarian and Chinese sponsors will be involved as well.
During the visit to China, Hiller met with Yang Lijing, the rector of the Shanghai Music Conservatory, to discuss the continued cooperation between the conservatory and the Ferenc Liszt University of Musical Arts in Hungary ? both schools are already involved with a teacher exchange programme ? and the conservatory?s participation in Magyar Autumn next year, which will mark the school?s 90th anniversary as well as the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.
At talks with Yang Qian, Shanghai?s top official in charge of education and science, Ferenc Hudecz, the rector of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and a member of the delegation travelling with Hiller, asked for further assistance in establishing cooperation between Hungarian and Chinese educational institutions.
Hiller also met with Professor Zhou Hanmin, who heads the office for coordinating preparations for the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai. Hungary is one of 96 countries which have so far said they would participate at the expo. It will present itself with a one-thousand-square-metre hall.
The Hungarian city of Pécs will have the title European Capital of Culture during the same year as the expo, and, at Hiller?s urging, the professor agreed to organise several special Hungarian national days at the expo, during which time Pécs would play a special role.
The visit to China was the first in fifteen years by such high-level education and culture officials, the ministry said in a statement.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
