Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang visits the Lincoln Center. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

Invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang visited New York from Sept 29 to 30 with a Chinese government cultural delegation. Xie Jinying, director of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Culture, accompanied Luo on the visit.

During the trip, Luo visited important culture and arts institutions, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Lincoln Center) and The Met. He also reviewed the activities held under the program "Happy Chinese New Year" in New York in the past years.

At Lincoln Center, Luo was welcomed by its chairwoman of the board Katherine Farley, and met with Oscar Schafer, chairman of the board of the New York Philharmonic.

Farley introduced Lincoln Center's collaboration with China in developing cultural exchanges in the past years, and thanked the Ministry of Culture for great support.

Luo fully recognized Lincoln Center's importance in promoting culture and art exchange between China and the US, and said it would continue to develop the partnerships, so people of the two countries can better appreciate each other in the fields of culture and art.

Thomas Campbell, director of The Met, introduced the museum's operation to Luo. Luo introduced the situations and development of China's museums and said would continue to support the cooperation between The Met and Chinese museums in exhibition, relic protection and more.