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For many Africans in Beijing, GBD Public Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange Center, formerly known as Bridge Art Center, in the capital's arterial Chang'an Avenue is a home away from home.

The center has held many cultural related activities since its establishment, with a celebration for annual Africa Day on May 25, 2012 being a highlight. Africans and a number of Chinese gathered to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity in 1963, now known as the African Union.

"It is amazing to celebrate our own event in this remote country," Mathil de Kra, an economic counselor from Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire in China, told ChinAfrica. "I feel I am at home as we have African music, dance, decorations and food here, even the [Chinese] working staff are wearing African style dresses," he added.

Ma Zhenxuan, Director of GBD, is committed to promoting friendships with people from Africa. For years, Ma  has been using the center as a bridge to foster the cultural communication between China and Africa.

"Culture is a more acceptable way when interacting with people from different backgrounds, and it can be a common ground to establish friendships," Ma told ChinAfrica, calling for more Africans to join the center and make friends with Chinese. 

A feeling of home

As Rome was not built in a day, African people's recognition of GBD as their home away from home has been gained gradually with a series of heart-warming stories. GBD's friendship with Africa started in the second half of 2008 when the center held an exhibition for ancient African culture themed as "The Immemorial Gaze."

In the exhibition, about 300 ancient African art works including wood carvings and ivory carvings were displayed. An important art form in African culture, wood carvings, especially African tribal masks, carry ritualistic meanings or express local people's worship of ancestral spirit.

"It was a great success. Visitors came in an endless stream," Ma recalled, adding that the exhibition helped Chinese learn about the culture of African peoples as each piece of work told an exotic story with its symbolic and societal meanings.

Some African painters were also invited to the exhibition and painted there. "By doing so, we show our sincere respect for our African friends," Ma said. According to him, the center has held many similar exhibitions, which are not only cultural exchange events, but also occasions for peoples from both sides to communicate.

In July 2010, when Mohamed Sahbi Basly, then Ambassador of Tunisia in China, was about to return to his country, GBD Public Diplomacy & Cultural Exchange Center held a farewell party for him. Having known the ambassador's Western zodiac sign as Pisces and his Chinese zodiac sign as dragon, Ma asked a folk artist to create images of fish and dragon using the blowing molten sugar sculpture, a traditional Chinese handicraft. "Chinese people are as considerate as families. And I will take the memories back to Tunisia," the ambassador said then. He was so moved that he made a half-hour-long impromptu speech to express his thanks for Chinese people's support and friendship.