Huang Wei, the reporter of the People Website reported on August 10th, as the first regional international arts festival held by China, the 8th Asia Art Festival (AAF) will be held from August 31 to September 6. Compared with the previous seven AAF, the Festival this year reaches a new height, in terms of scale and contents.

The year of 2006 is the 15th anniversary of the establishment of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relationship. Last December, when our Premier Wen Jiabao attended the ninth leaders meeting of ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea in Malaysia, he proposed to host the 8th Asia Arts Festival in 2006. This AAF, with the theme of "learning from each other, and developing in a harmonious step", will hold four main activities, namely, the grand performance of "Bravo! ASEAN" jointly staged by ASEAN and Chinese artists, the "Theme Conference of Asian (10＋3) Arts Museum Directors Forum", "Asian Wonders - Art Exhibition of ASEAN", and "The 2nd NEACH & (10＋3) Cultural Personnel Resource Development and Cooperation Training Class".

The "ASEAN Cultural Week", the focus of the 8th AAF, will show every ASEAN member countries' representative traditional arts. And the "Asian Wonders - Art Exhibition of ASEAN" will exhibit various textiles, costumes, woodcarvings, folk toys, potteries and porcelains, gold and sill wares, shadow plays, knitting works, embroideries, and masks, which best represent the traditions and cultures of each ASEAN member country.
The "Theme Conference of Asian (10＋3) Art Museum Directors Forum" is another highlight of the Festival, focusing on the present situation and development of modern Asian art, the exchange of each other's experiences. The 2nd NEACH" will discuss how to further exert its positive influence on the protection of traditional culture, with the theme of "the development and concrete cooperation projects of NEACH". The first NEACH was held in Thailand in 2005.