More than 550 people, including Brazilian residents, descendants and Chinese citizens, participated in the third edition of Festa Junina in Beijing, organized by the Brazilian Citizens’ Council in the capital. The event is part of the Brazil-China Cultural Year, which since 2025 has brought artists, musicians, films and exhibitions to the Asian country.
At the same event, publisher Chaohua set up a stand with the Mandarin edition of “O Povo Brasileiro”, by Darcy Ribeiro, launched in April with support from both governments, and left with 35 copies sold.
The stalls set up for the occasion delivered a Brazilian menu: the Latina restaurant, whose chef Luis Enrique Ribeiro won the 2025 competition That’s Beijingserved picanha and sausage sandwiches, cheese bread and curau. Ju Homemade brought brigadeiro, cocada, corn cake and tamale.
The festival coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated at the same time in China with the consumption of zongzi, rice balls cooked in bamboo leaves that the organizers compare to tamale. “I think it’s really cool to show Chinese people that Brazilian culture is not so far from theirs,” said Rafael Zerbetto, member of the Council and one of the organizers. On stage, a multicultural dance group, led by Liu Xiaoyan and made up mainly of Chinese dancers, performed samba.
The majority of those present were Chinese. “The people who come here most to meet are the Chinese,” said William Guey, a doctoral student in production engineering at Tsinghua University and member of the Brazilian Citizens Council. For Judy Chen, a Chinese interpreter and translator married to a Brazilian, the party fulfills a practical function: “It’s an excuse for us to meet Brazilian friends and also Chinese friends who are interested in Brazilian culture. It will develop more relations between the two countries.”
Tsinghua currently has 38 Brazilian students enrolled on the Beijing campus, the largest contingent in its history, according to Guey, who also works to support the admission of international students to the university. “In Beijing now it’s not just diplomats and businessmen. There are a lot more academics, there are a lot more artists,” he said. With mutual visa exemption between the two countries, business flow has also grown: Guey said he has observed more than ten excursions by companies from different sectors visiting the capital in recent months.
Zhao Qian, director of Chaohua’s First Editorial Center, said that the most common reaction from readers since the book’s release in April is one of recognition: “The book helped them understand the soul of Brazil, the country’s deepest cultural elements, and they recognized themselves in these elements.” For her, Ribeiro is “one of Brazil’s great thinkers” and “a deep connoisseur of the Brazilian soul”. “By participating in an event like this, we feel that we have truly entered Brazilian culture,” he said.
Starting motor
The Minister of Culture, Margareth Menezes, said during a visit to Shanghai in May that the objective of the Brazil-China Cultural Year is not to promote artists, but to “open a market” so that Brazilian art can be consumed regularly in China. Zerbetto returned to the point: “This cannot remain as something isolated. This has to be just the starter, so that later you can make the thing continue moving on its own”, he stated.
For commercial manager Daniel Chen, “Chinese and Brazilians have similar histories of defending the independence of a Western colony”. “Brazilians are also fighting for a better life, for a life with more dignity and freedom,” he stated.
“I believe that Brazilians who come here will love China. I hope that, in the future, we can have more Brazilians who come here to see China through their eyes,” he added.
Judy Chen observes that the movement is already happening in both directions: “More and more Brazilians are coming here to travel, to learn about the history of China. And the Chinese are also very interested in getting to know Brazil,” she said. “There will be more and more Chinese traveling to Brazil.”
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
