The ordinary Chinese person seemed very interested in listening to foreigners sing local songs.

In 2002, BTV began to enlarge the event. Apart from songs, Chinese folk dances, martial arts, traditional local operas, calligraphy, crosstalk, Chinese paintings and some other art forms were also included.

The title of the event subsequently changed to "Arts From Our Land" in the same year.

Lu Xiaonan has been overseeing the development of the event for five of its eight years and has witnessed the amazing growth of the competition.

According to Lu, over 2,000 people from more than 40 countries and regions, aged between 3 and 67, have taken part in the contests.

Lu is deeply impressed with what he has experienced.

"The scale of the event is getting larger and larger. In 1995, there were only 20 people in the final. This year, we have more than 50," he said.

There are many new aspects to this year's contest.

"The most prominent change is that contestants this year speak much better Chinese," Lu said.

In the past several years, BTV had to employ an interpreter to allow the contestants to better communicate with Chinese staff. But this year it is completely unnecessary, as all contestants can use Chinese quite well.

Still, Lu says it is not all smooth sailing.

"Sometimes there would be collisions, due to different cultural backgrounds," he said.

For example, while Lu might consider it unnecessary to be too strict with their performances, contestants would always be critical of themselves and insist on continuing to practice.

"Such collisions are unavoidable, but it provides us with chances of better understanding of each other," he said.

The influence of the event has been far-reaching.

"By organizing the contest, we have gathered hundreds of foreigners who have mastered Chinese culture," Lu said.

Lu said he has often been asked to recommend foreign actors and actresses to various shows across China.

(China Daily January 9, 2003)