Canadian International Cultural Exchanges

Canadian International Cultural Exchanges (CICEX) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes mutual understanding through cultural exchange. It serves as a voice for artists of contemporary and traditional art forms to express themselves to people of different cultures.

In 2004, political tensions between China, Japan, and Korea were very much in the news. Steeped in history, those tensions burst into flame in China in summer 2004, with angry Chinese demonstrating outside the Japanese and Korean embassies in Beijing.

Amazingly, as those demonstrations escalated in violence, diplomats from the Beijing embassies of the very countries embroiled joined representatives from the Canadian embassy in opening an art show in Beijing. That show, hosted by CICEX and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, marked the first-ever display of international art at the Chinese National Museum on Tiananmen Square.

The show involved artwork by Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Canadian artists. That it brought together in the same room embassy officials from three Asian nations engaged in serious diplomatic disputes testifies to the power of art to transcend itself and to bridge even severe differences. 

Two thousand five marks CICEX’s fifth year in promoting mutual understanding and peaceful cooperation through artistic and other cultural mediums. In those five years, CICEX has organized exhibitions in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada; Tokyo, Japan; and Beijing, China.   

CICEXis the brainchild of Asai (Hoi Sai) Wu-Brandt.

Asai (Hoi Sai) Wu-Brandt was born in Hong Kong and raised in the People’s Republic of China. For almost 30 years, she lived and ran businesses in Tokyo, Japan. Her marriage there to a Canadian led to her move to Chilliwack some 10 years ago.

The move, however, occasioned a longing for the cultural activities ubiquitous in Japan. Asai (Hoi Sai) missed seeing artists and artistry firsthand in Tokyo’s numerous museums and art galleries. She also missed experiencing Japan’s ancient culture through participation in ikebana and calligraphy and other activities and by simply walking the streets of Tokyo.

From this longing grew the aim of sharing with people in Canada and Chilliwack especially some of what she had experienced in Japan. Global Canada Cultural Exchanges is the avenue through which Asai (Hoi Sai) seeks to achieve that aim. With CICEX, she fosters mutual understanding through cultural exchange that centers on art and art exhibitions.

Although 2005 sawCICEX operate on a smaller scale than in 2004—when CICEX held exhibitions in Japan, China, and Canada—the lone art show it hosted at the art gallery in Chilliwack City Hall, in Canada, was a resounding success. That show brought together art and artists from Canada, Japan, and Korea for the benefit of the local community and its neighbors.

Looking ahead, CICEX’s ideal of using art and cultural exchange as a medium to help to overcome problems as wide-ranging as war, poverty, hunger, and abuse remains intact. GCCE proposes to host yet another art exhibition in Canada in 2006. It is hoped that the upcoming Canadian show will combine the artwork of 20 to 30 professional and amateur Japanese artists with that of at least 20 Canadian artists.

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