Chinese President Xi Jinping and Singaporean Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong unveiled the China Cultural Center here during Xi's recent state visit to the city state, the first official center to promote Chinese culture.
In 2010, Xi, who was vice president at the time, and then Senior Minister Tong attended the ground-breaking ceremony of the center.
COMBINATION OF CHINESE ELEMENTS, MODERN DESIGN
The China Cultural Center is located at 217 Queens Street in Singapore's Arts and Heritage District. The gray and white walls of the building are reminiscent of ancient Chinese architecture.
"When I first saw it, I was really impressed. As director of the center, I am proud of working here. My job also gives me a sense of responsibility to deepen cultural exchanges between the two countries," Ma Hongying, director of the center, told Xinhua.
Close to museums, arts education institutions, galleries and other art facilities, the center aims to facilitate the understanding of Chinese culture abroad, promote people-to-people exchanges and deepen cultural cooperation with China.
Designed by Liu Thai-Ker, the master planner of Singapore, the center is a perfect combination of Chinese cultural elements and modern architectural design.
"From the aesthetic point of view, I think the center should be a modern building first. When people talk about China, they often regard it as an ancient culture. However, China has become a modern country. So I think the design of the center should be a good combination of modern elements and the charm of traditional Chinese culture," Liu said.
The cultural center, which covers an area of about 1,352 square meters, has 10 floors with about 8,900 square meters of construction area. It is comprised of a tower and podium with panorama elevators, an aerial corridor and a main roof, which are considered highlights of the design.
Liu said "dougong," an arch often used in traditional Chinese architecture, is one of the eye-catching parts of the center, which is in "Chinese Red," a typical Chinese color.
As people in different countries have various understandings of colors, Liu said his team has communicated many times with the manufacturer and finally achieved the effect.
"The proportion of doors and windows in ancient Chinese architecture is quite different from that in the West," said Liu. "We tried to follow the tradition as long as the design doesn't affect the use, which allows people to sense the charm of Chinese architecture."
In addition, the aerial corridor is also transparent. People can see the landscape when they walk through the corridor.
