Michael Kaiser, president of the US John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, received a Prize for Cultural Communication from Chinese Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng in Beijing on Sunday for his role in Sino-US cultural dialogue and exchange.

At an awarding ceremony, Sun said that the "Festival of China," jointly organized by China's Ministry of Culture and the Kennedy Center in Washington last month, has enchanted the US audience and helped strengthen the friendship between the two peoples, as well as the Sino-US constructive cooperation.

The minister said Michael Kaiser and his team had played a significant role in promoting the "Festival of China" and also in training Chinese personnel of art management.

An art management expert himself, Kaiser has devoted himself to the Sino-US cultural communication and helped train many Chinese personnel in the field, the minister noted.

According to Sun, Kaiser would soon leave Beijing for Shanghai to give lectures there.

Initiated in 1996, the Prize for Cultural Communication is China's top government honor in recognition of overseas personages' "outstanding contribution to the promotion of cross-cultural dialogue."

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2005)