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QUINCY JONES ON CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN CHINA
MAY 30, 2006 - 4:54PM PDT
Posted by Joshua S Fouts
Via http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/pdfs/Quincy_Speech-5_26.pdf

On October 12 the USC Center on Public Diplomacy is pleased to join Mr. Quincy Jones and Adam Clayton Powell III in celebrating the 50th anniversary of a critical event in U.S. public diplomacy history: Dizzy Gillespie's 1956 State Department-funded world musical tour. The tour was considered a turning point in U.S. cultural outreach to the world. We will host a special event here at USC. Details will be posted on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy events calendar section. The below speech, which Quincy Jones delivered on May 26 in Beijing, is reprinted with permission of Quincy Jones with special thanks to Adam Clayton Powell III. The speech, which was delivered on Mr. Jones's first visit to the People's Republic of China, highlights the importance of Cultural Diplomacy and Mr. Jones's thoughts on the cultural reach of arts and entertainment exports across countries. We are pleased to share it with you. Download/read (.pdf). Quincy Jones Beijing University Beijing, China May 26, 2006 DA ZSA HAH-OW (3 times with gesture). (Big house hello.) WOR TEE-OW QUINCY JONES. (I) (am) (Quincy Jones.) TIN TEE-AN WOR-HAN WRONG SHEEN (Today) (I very) (honored) LIE-DOW TEUR-LEE. (to come here.) WAR-DA NESE JOAN WEN BOO-HOW, (My Chinese) (No good,) WAR-SEE IN TAI GUY-EEYOWN ENGLISH. (Now) (Switch and use English.) MAYO WENTE. (No problem). I’ve been looking forward to sharing some thoughts and experiences with you today, in and out of music... and giving you a glimpse of my journey and evolution as an artist... and of some of the people who have touched my life. I’d also like to attempt to offer some bold visions for China’s future in the arts and entertainment. I just celebrated my 73rd birthday. During the last 50 years, I’ve had the good fortune to travel all over the world, including Hong Kong since 1962. But this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to visit the People’s Republic of China. Seeing, feeling and experiencing your country and your culture has inspired and enriched me beyond my wildest imagination. The arts and entertainment bring people together. They allow the ties between us to flourish and grow, even during times when differences between governments arise. The creative expressions of artists like my good friends and brothers Yo Yo Ma and Jackie Chan help build bridges between cultures, giving us a better and more peaceful understanding and appreciation of each other. These first 73 years of my life have been an amazing journey. It began in 1933 in the biggest black ghetto in America, Chicago, Illinois... where I grew up during America’s worst economic depression. During our summer vacations, my daddy used to drive me and my brother Lloyd down to stay at my grandmother’s in Louisville, Kentucky. My grandmother, who was an incredible woman and a strong, coal-black ex-slave, lived in what was called “a shotgun shack”, with no electricity, no water and a coal stove. The high-tech security system in this neighborhood in 1939 was a bent rusty nail…... FULL TEXT
 
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