CRI听力:CRI Exclusive: Irish President Urges Understanding of Legacy of Chinese Civilization

Reporter: As a poet President who values cultural inheritance very much, what aspects of the Irish culture are you proud to share with the Chinese people?

Michael D. Higgins: Well, I think that sharing has already started, I mean, I have, during the visit, been speaking about the influence, first of all, of the fourth century Chinese writer on Oscar Wilde, who really, we'll say, Chuang Tzu, with great influence on Oscar Wilde, before he wrote Lady Windermere's Fan (温夫人的扇子) and many plays, that is a very interesting connection. But then some of the contemporary Irish writers, they have been translated into Chinese. I saw presented to me as a gift, the first volume of the translation of Finnegans Wake (芬尼根的守灵夜), James Joyce, and I would like to see Irish visual artists making it into the galleries.

Reporter: What part of the Chinese culture are Irish people most interested in?

Michael D. Higgins: I think they're interested in, again, is rather similar. And I think China, young Chinese people, maybe need to assert it more, when they come to Europe, is the very long legacy of civilization that stand behind China. I think not enough is often made either of the extraordinary contribution that calligraphy represents in relation to the history of art, but also the different philosophical movements and how they shade into one another, certainly some of the basic principles in philosophy, are ones that come from the moment before Rene Descartes and the enlightenment in Europe as it is called.

Reporter: So when Chinese young people go abroad for study or work, Europe is one of their most favorite destinations. What are the policies of Ireland in attracting more Chinese young talents to go there to work or study?

Michael D. Higgins: Well, I think first of all it's easier now, because after the establishment of joint fees with Britain let's say for visiting you can in fact get on a single visa you can go to either Britain and Ireland, and it includes all of Ireland. But I think as well there are 2700 Chinese students who are studying at the present time, 2400 who are studying Irish masters here. There's a great advantage that if you are learning English in the cities and in the country of somebody of that 4 Nobel laureates in a language that they took on over just 100 years ago. And that you have the location of some of the principal science and technology companies in the world, and then you have an opportunity after study of spending a year involving yourself.