Chinese film week builds bridges with Australian audiences

For former teacher Denis Doherty, watching Chinese movies at the cinema is a rare opportunity.

So he was delighted when he could catch one of this year's top blockbusters from China in Sydney on Nov 7.

"I taught in primary school, so I'm interested in animation," the Australian retiree told China Daily.

Doherty joined hundreds of moviegoers invited for the screening of Ne Zha 2, the animated film which broke box office records, at the launch of the 2025 Chinese Film Week.

The weeklong event, organized by the Chinese embassy in Australia, together with China Lion Film Entertainment Co and CMC Pictures Group, presents six popular films of this year across major Australian cities.

Chinese Consul General in Sydney Wang Yu said the festival takes place at a special moment for China.

"The fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee, held recently in Beijing, adopted recommendations on China's national economic and social development plan for the next five years. It sets the direction for further deepening reform and expanding high-level opening-up, reaffirming China's confidence and determination to pursue modernization in a spirit of openness and cooperation with the world," he said.

"These very values — reform, openness and connection — also lie at the heart of cinema. Film allows us to see one another through different lenses, to share emotions and experiences that transcend language and geography. In that sense, every good film is an act of dialogue — a conversation between cultures and hearts," he said.

"In recent years, China–Australia relations have maintained a positive momentum of consolidation and progress, guided by principles of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. People-to-people exchange has always been the enduring foundation of our friendship. I believe that cultural events like this film week speak a universal language — one that builds trust, deepen understanding, and remind us of how much we share in common," Wang said.

Robert Kok, councillor of the city of Sydney, said film has "an unrivalled ability to transport us to other worlds and lives, and expose us to new and unexpected insights of each culture or country where the film has been made".

Events like the festival, he added, help strengthen the strong bonds between China and Australia, raising cross-cultural awareness and better understanding.

Peter Weitzel, president of the New South Wales branch of the Australia-China Friendship Society, a nonprofit group promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of Australia and China, said that while the best way to foster closer relations is through direct person-to-person contact, that is not always possible or practical.

"And this is where film comes to the fore. It is a potent medium of cultural exchange," he said.

"In fact, through the 1960s to 1980s and beyond, our society would source films from China and show them in venues large and small. We even had our own film projector, nothing online … the response was outstanding," Weitzel said.

For Doherty, one of his takeaways from Ne Zha 2 was the emphasis on family ties, filial piety and other traditional Chinese values.

Based on popular mythological figure Nezha, the screenplay adapted the 16th-17th-century classic The Investiture of the Gods, one of the earliest major literary works to combine Taoist and Buddhist concepts of "deities" and "demons".

"I was trying to keep up with all the characters … but there were also similarities from our culture and moments of humor that I could identify with," Doherty said.

Indarjit Khuman, board director of the Ethnic Communities' Council of New South Wales, told China Daily that family values remain one of the main strengths of Chinese culture.

"Chinese culture has got very good concept of family, which is the root cause and the main thing for the progress of the communities," he said.

xinxin@chinadaily.com.cn