On July 16th, teenagers from Dresden, German met local peers in Hangzhou Public Library for a face-to-face dialogue. The event was started by introducing the two cities respectively by two representatives from both groups, deepened by sharing their personal views about social issues and discussion about the books they read. The more we saw the power on cultural conflicts, the more we felt the importance of cross-cultural communication.
Father and Son, as cartoon series, written by E.O.Plauen, German writer, was specifically picked and discussed. They all agreed the way Plauen illustrated the relation between children and their parents is both funny and touching. When talking about the generation gap and whether children need to behave themselves to better handle the relations with their family members, some of participants shared their personal stories. Although they came from different culture, topics on human being’s common emotion broke the barriers and shortened the distance between one another. After literature-based discussion, they were divided into groups for free discussion on topics of their different interest, some even showed their techniques on taekwondo and tap dance.The dialogues lasted for more than two and half hours, ended in happy photo selfies.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of friendship between Hangzhou and Dresden. As a library which is committed to promoting communication among different countries and cultures, Hangzhou Public Library has built up friendship with Dresden Municipal Library since 2014. Besides this dialog, we believe more cooperation programs will be expected in the future.
