The Asia Art Festival (AAF) is the first regional international art festival held by China, with the aim of "promoting China-foreign understanding and cultural exchange, strengthening friendship among different peoples, facilitating the development of cultural industries, and meeting the cultural demands of the general public." It has been held for eight times since its debut in 1998.

The year of 2006 is the 15th anniversary of the establishment of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relationship. Compared with the previous seven AAF, the Festival this year reaches a new height, in terms of scale and contents.

Starting from August 31 to September 6, the 8th 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) Art Museum Directors Forum", "Asian Wonders - Art Exhibition of ASEAN", and "The 2nd NEACH & (10＋3) Cultural Personnel Resource Development and Cooperation Training Class". The highlight of this year's AAF is the ASEAN Culture Week.

Since its birth in 1998, AAF has been committed itself to help Asian and the world's people to enhance their understanding of each other's cultures via cultural exchanges and dialogue between different civilizations.

This year the artists from Brunei, Laos and Burma will bring their national instrumental music performance to the 8th AAF. The Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese artists will bring their folk as well popular songs and dances. And the "Asian Wonders - Art Exhibition of ASEAN" will exhibit various handcrafts, which best represent the traditions and cultures of each ASEAN member country. It is also the first time that Singapore and Malaysia send their best modern dance troupes to perform in China.

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 experience on collecting, exhibiting and researching, the establishment of regional cooperation system, and the promotion of common development of Asian art museums.

"The (10＋3) Cultural Personnel Resources Development and Cooperation Training Class" aims at sharing experiences on the development, protection and strengthening of Cultural Personnel Resources, to turn culture into a new drive for economic development, which is a common task faced by many East Asian countries.
"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.

Culture is our heritage, and culture is our future.