"What is also important is to not be a 'closed box'," Lee says. "We need to open our eyes, ears and minds to sense and experience other cultures. Art alone cannot bridge cultural divides if people aren't willing to be open."
Lee recalled how he managed to pique the interest of many Chinese artists when he introduced European street art to China through the Shanghai Expo in 2010. The event, he added, had planted a seed in the minds of local artists, spurring them to find out more about this foreign art form.
In 2015, Lee sought to foster cultural exchange by bringing together performers of Kunqu Opera, a Chinese traditional opera form boasting hundreds of years of history, and classical musicians from Belgium, to perform in a concert titled When East Meets West during the Shanghai Arts Festival.
"People with traditional theater backgrounds are usually very conservative because they spent most of their lives mastering the traditional craft. They tend to dislike anything that is too avant-garde. They resist foreign ideas and are reluctant to try combining the modern with the new," he says.
"I remember there was a well-known flute player from Kunqu Opera who was initially apprehensive about playing alongside a classical violinist from Belgium, but her mind was changed after seeing the wonderful results. I thought that this was very meaningful, because this breakthrough meant that she could go on to teach her Chinese peers about the beauty of cross-cultural collaboration."
Troiani also weighed in on the importance of such endeavors.
"As the world becomes more connected, the requirement for young people to graduate with skills they can use internationally becomes even more important," Troiani says. "Being able to understand and respect cultural differences while sharing ideas, values and traditions is a form of cultural exchange which gives true meaning to being a global citizen."
Founded in 2006 as joint venture between Xi'an Jiaotong University in Suzhou and the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, XJTLU is the largest institution of its kind in China and currently offers nearly 90 degree programs in fields such as science, business, architecture, culture and urban planning.
