A biennial conference on the intercultural communication between China and the world opened on Friday.

Photo taken on June 12, 2009, shows the opening ceremony of the 8th China Association for Intercultural Communication Intercultural Conference, with the theme of "Intercultural Communication between China and the World: Interpersonal, Organizational and Mediated Perspectives." [Xinhua]

Titled "Intercultural Communication between China and the World: Interpersonal, Organizational and Mediated Perspectives," the 8th China Association for Intercultural Communication (CAFIC) Intercultural Conference aims to enhance the mutual understanding between China and the world as well as the teaching and studying of the subject.

The three-day conference will cover more than 100 topics, including intercultural competence, intercultural identity, organizational communication and China's image as well as the overseas Sinology study.

Compared with the previous conference, this one is more internationalized with about 600 scholars from around the globe, said Sun Yonzhong, president of the organizing committee of the conference, also vice president of CAFIC.

Along with renowned scholars in the field, the conference was also attended by high rank officials.

"With the presence of them, we have gained the official and administrative support we needed to promote the teaching and study of intercultural communication in China," said Sun.

Moreover, this year's conference "has expanded the boundary of intercultural communication as a research field," Sun added.

"We redefined the boundary of intercultural communication studies. Now we have four sub-areas, i.e., the interpersonal perspective, which is the traditional perspective, mass communication, organizational communication, comparative cultural studies."

Speaking of the role of media, especially the Internet in intercultural communication, the president said that mass media is playing a more and more important role. Not everyone can have the chance to travel abroad to get to know another culture personally, but, "almost everybody can watch Hollywood media, or listen to BBC."

This year's conference is co-hosted by the Intercultural Studies Center of the School of English and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Launched by China Association for Intercultural Communication in 1995, the conference has helped the intercultural communication in China enter a new epoch. It is also a new landmark in the study of international intercultural communication.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)