The large scale French design art show, as a kicking-off celebration for the French Culture Year, opened in Beijing Saturday at the National Museum of China, unveiling French people's wisdom and its design history over the past century.

Chen Zhili, Chinese state councilor, and Bernadette Chirac, wife of the French President Jacques Chirac, participated in the opening ceremony, as did French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, French Foreign Trade Minister Francois Loos and China's Vice Culture Minister Zheng Xinmiao, curator of China's National Museum Pan Zhenzhou.

Fan Di'an, the exhibition's organizer on the Chinese side, who is also vice-president of the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Gilles de Bure, the organizer on the French side jointly gave a brief introduction to the show, which, with "specific topics and diachronic style," fully demonstrates the French "romantic" and "innovative" spirit.

According to the organizer, the show will remain in Beijing for 40 days before moving to Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province and Shenzhen, a city in south China's Guangdong Province. Enditem

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2004)