CultuREEL: “Mr. Deng Goes To Washington”

On Wednesday, November 16th, 2016, Meridian International Center partnered with the U.S.-China Education Trust to host the Mr. Deng Goes to Washington film presentation and program.

Mr. Deng Goes to Washington is a 2015 documentary recounting Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping’s official nine-day visit to the United States in 1979. This visit, the first by any leader of the People’s Republic of China, occurred shortly after the two countries issued a joint communiqué establishing full diplomatic relations between them, marking the beginning of U.S. accessibility to Communist China.

Meridian President and CEO, Ambassador Stuart Holliday, and Chairman of the U.S.-China New Perspectives Foundation, Zhou Zhixing, offered welcoming remarks to upwards of 75 attendees. His Excellency Cui Tiankai, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United States, and Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, partook in a pre-screening Q&A open to all attendees. Fu Hongxing, the film director, and Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe offered a lively post-film discussion, led by questions of the event’s attendees, and moderated by Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, President of the U.S-China Education Trust. Ambassador Bloch presented closing remarks to conclude the evening.

Fu Hongxing’s Mr. Deng Goes to Washington weaves together animation, interviews, and footage of Mr. Deng’s time in the United States. Conveying the significance of this moment in time, this film depicts the beginning of a new relationship between the United States and China, one where the two are inexplicably linked. Meridian International Center was honored to host the U.S. showing of the film which is now open to the general public. The event was made possible with support from Beijing Guangshi Culture Communications Co. Ltd. and the U.S.-China New Perspectives Foundation.

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