On the evening of 2 February 2023, the exhibition "Cine Chino En Dos Tiempos” (“Chinese Cinema in Two Ages") opened at the Palacio de la Moneda Cultural Centre in Santiago, Chile. It is jointly organized by the China Film Archive, la Cineteca Nacional de Chile, and the Chinese Embassy in Chile. With twelve films spanning a century, the exibition will hopefully present a lively and multi-dimensional China to the Chilean audience.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Chinese Ambassador to Chile, Mr. Niu Qingbao and his wife Ms. Yuan Jun, the Director of la Cineteca Nacional de Chile, Mr. Marcelo Morales, and the Director of the Cultural Centre of the Presidency, Mr. Pablo Brunori. The Director of the China Film Archive, Ms. Sun Xianghui, sent her congratulations via video link.

In her speech, Ms. Sun recalled the friendship between the two countries and briefly introduced the selected films for the exhibition. “Six of these pictures are highly-acclaimed and newly-produced ones over the last three years. They showcase modern China and its people’s life in the past decade. The other six are classics produced between 1922 and 1961, with ‘Labourer’s Love’, the earliest of all, boasting a history of 101 years. These works will surely bring Chilean audiences closer to Chinese culture and history with their vivid images and story-telling”, said Ms. Sun.

“Labourer’s Love”, China’s earliest existing fictional movie, kicked off the exhibition as Chilean pianist Jiménez scored the film on live. Meanwhile, Chilean journalist and film critic Ramirez gave a talk on the history of Chinese cinema. More pictures, including “Street Angel (1928), “Crows and Sparrows” (1949), “Five Golden Flowers” (1959), “The Red Detachment of Women”(1961), “Uproar in Heaven”(1963), “My People, My Country”(2019), “The Captain”(2019), “The Rescue”(2020), “Hi, Mom”(2021), “A Writer's Odyssey”(2021), and “Cliff Walkers”(2021) are slated for screening at la Cineteca Nacional de Chile. To make Chilean audiences better understand China’s past and present through these movies, Mr. Zuo Heng, a researcher at the CFA, has pre-recorded introduction videos to be screened together with the films and via online platforms.