Franco-Chinese Month of the Environment opens

Nicolas Defrenne (1st R), general director of PV CYCLE France, leads a tour to the exhibition and introduces the photographs to the visitors.

French photographer Alain Fouray’s exhibition titled “RE-CYCLAGES” opened for the first time in China on Sunday at Shenzhen Talent Park, kicking off the Sixth Franco-Chinese Month of the Environment.

The exhibition allows visitors to take another look at the recyclable and recoverable materials in our daily lives, aiming to raise people’s awareness of giving everyday waste a “second life” by reusing and recycling. Running through Oct. 22 in Shenzhen, the exhibition will then continue its tour through Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Hangzhou.

Organized by the French Embassy in China, the event runs from Sept. 22 to Nov. 6 across 23 Chinese cities, and features a wide range of activities, including conferences, exhibitions, lectures, concerts, film screenings and artistic workshops.

Themed “How to Balance Economy and Environment,” this year’s edition calls on companies, consumers, political figures and ordinary people to make efforts to choose greener lifestyles for more responsible and sustainable development.

The promotion ambassador said this year’s environment month is inviting leading companies in the environmental protection sector to share their experience in making a profit by protecting the environment, which demonstrates that there is no such thing as a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. “We should not consider environmental protection as a threat to economic development but rather a business opportunity in the long run if we take good advantage of environmental causes, such as garbage sorting.”

Hong Huang, a Chinese media figure, editor, blogger and the promotion ambassador for this year’s Franco-Chinese Month of the Environment, also mentioned that France has been a pioneer in innovating ways to protect the environment over its long history. She believes that with the ideas and experience from the French side as well as the execution from the Chinese side, the two countries can achieve something extraordinary.

Hong told the Shenzhen Daily that it’s fitting and proper to open the environment month in Shenzhen. “Shenzhen stands as a miracle, having been transformed from a fishing village into a metropolis within four decades. It’s a city with excellent execution. So I think the city has more possibilities in urban planning and environmental protection.”

Guests attending the opening ceremony included Siv Leng Chhuor, the French consul general in Guangzhou; Mikaël Hautchamp, minister counselor for cultural, educational and scientific affairs of the French Embassy in China; Sun Zhen, deputy general director of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the PRC.