Lockdown not only reduced the need for interest in Chinese culture, but on the contrary, this extraordinary situation increased interest and opened up new opportunities for the Confucius Institute at Vilnius University. In February, the institute organized two distance lectures for Coretech lt, UAB on Chinese culture.
The first lecture "Chinese Aesthetics: Stories of 2000" was given by Robertas Jucaitis, associate professor of the Department of Graphic Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, a graphic designer, branding expert with many years of professional and pedagogical experience, who has led a creative workshop for students at the Gengdan Institute of the BGD in Beijing, China.
In the lecture, the speaker looked at today’s global dominant Western standard, which also needs aesthetics. It has been argued that differently from the West, in the East, works of art, in particular, have suggestive poetic and enriching properties. The artist must also be able to master the ideal intuitive way of managing creative means of expression, which is achieved through many years of practice. And while many contemporary Chinese artists follow the West, Western modernity is only a continuation of old local cultural traditions. Just as modern Western culture is unimaginable in its histories and traditions, so China, as it moves on a global modern path, begins to re-evaluate its cultural heritage, which is also reflected in the modern digital space.
In the second lecture "Ethical / Social Values and Consumer Culture in Contemporary China" Loreta Poškaitė, Doctor of Humanities, Associate Professor, Researcher and Lecturer in Sinology at Vilnius University Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, presented the most important Chinese ethical values - respect, honesty, and social constructs – the ‘face’ and the ‘connections’ and their impact on Chinese business etiquette and consumer culture in today’s China.
We are glad to be able to help Lithuanian business with such lectures. It is no secret that in order to cooperate smoothly with the Chinese, first of all it is necessary to know their culture and understand the Chinese business etiquette. After the lectures, we received great feedback, which encourages us to move forward.