China International Folk Art Festival (CIFAF), sponsored by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) since 1990, is the only large-scale international folk art festival in China. The festival is very popular among people and the state leaders have always shown great concern and paid much attention to it. C[FAF is held once every three years and it has been successfully held for six times until now.

　　China International Folk Art Festival has its own clear purpose, theme and feature:

　　Purpose:

　　-- to develop and exchange folk art of various countries;

　　-- to enliven and enrich the cultural life of the masses;

　　-- to show the image of the reform and opening-up in our country;

　　-- to promote the friendship and peace among the countries in the world.

　　Theme:

　　-- to develop folk art and to promote the friendship and peace;

　　Feature:

　　-- international, national, folk and mass characters.

　　Since 1990, CFLAC has sponsored the CIFAF in nearly 30 cities in China, invited 83 national troupes of folk song and dance from 63 counties with more than 2,100 artists to participate the performances. The performances were showed in gymnasiums, theatres, public squares and parks. We even arranged the troupes to go to the factories, mines enterprises, schools, rural areas, etc.

　　There are two types of performances, elite professional performances and amateur non-professional performances, which both demonstrate the art of folk songs and dances with diversified features from different countries. All performances were lively telecasted by China Central Television and some local television stations and were shown to the 1.3 billion Chinese people.

　　Those artists of great achievements in the field of folk art are awarded with the Art Achievement Gold Cup of CIFAF. There are also the Art Friendship Gold Cup, the Art Friendship Silver Cup and the Art Friendship Bronze Cup to be awarded to those art troupes upon their excellent performances at the festival.

　　Due to the support of the Chinese government and the society as well as the active participation of the artists and art organizations from all over world, CIFAF have been held successfully and perfectly for six times, assisting the non-profit principle all the time. All the income of the performance during a festival is used for itself.

　　Every time, the CIFAF was permeated with joy and happiness. The performance of every troupe was unique and attractive. Usually, when it comes to the end, artists from all over the world, who participate in the festival, would find it very hard to leave the country and the audience. All of them would cherish the memory of their stay in China during the festivals.

　　Encouraged by this feeling of joy and success, we realize the importance of the exchange between culture and art from different countries in the world and we have great confidence to sponsor the CIFAF continuously in the future and try to do it better and better.

China Federation of Literary and Art Circles