Thanks to the means of modem transportation and communication, the world is getting smal-ler. The whole world community appears to be no more than a large global village, where the peo-ple of different nations come together with different cultural backgrounds and values. ( 61 ) While engaging themselves in cultural exchange, they seek common development in a harmonious and re-spectful relationship.
(62) Cultural exchange is by no means a process of losing one' s own culture to a foreign cul-ture, but one of enriching each other' s national cultures.
Through cultural exchange, different cultures can absorb and influence one another. We should adopt the principle of eliminating the false and retaining the true, discarding the dross and selecting the essential., exporting more and importing the best, and resisting corruptive influences.
(63) I believe that different cultures can learn from each other' s strengths to offset their own weak-nesses and complement one another.
(64) While absorbing the essence of a foreign culture, we should not be content with imitation without creation. An obsession with simple imitation will sterilize creation, and as such it will be impossible for us to scale new heights in art and impossible to present to the world excellent works of our own creation. Simple imitation is by no means equivalent to novelty and originality. On the contrary, novelty and originality result from the combination of modem and traditional styles, the combination of the distinctive features of foreign countries and those of our own nation, and the combination of artistry and education.
(65) The culture of a nation must withhold its own distinctive national characteristics in its ex-tensive exchange with other cultures, and make contributions to the development of human civiliza-tion.