This year's Croisements Festival, which is an annual cross-cultural celebration between China and France, has particular relevance as 2014 marks 50 years of official diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The festival has its roots in 2005, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for the "Années Croisées France-China" (The France-China Crossover Years) to be extended towards "a never-ending future." In response, the French embassy in China proposed to the Chinese Ministry of Culture that the two countries collaborate on a major annual arts and cultural festival.

Now, the Croisements Festival has evolved into the biggest French cultural festival abroad, and the biggest foreign cultural festival held in China.

From April 11 to July 10, the 2014 Croisements Festival will include no fewer than 100 events in more than 40 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

The events range across music, dance, theater, cinema, visual arts, new media, circus, exhibitions and street art. It also includes training programs, workshops and seminars for both Chinese and overseas people. A few of the highlights are profiled below.

Little Singers of Paris Photos: Courtesy of the organizers

Music & Dance

Founded in 1907, French choir troupe the Little Singers of Paris is regarded as one of the best boy choirs in the world. At the very beginning, this troupe mainly concentrated on religious repertoire until it was taken over by a young French priest called Abbe Maillet in 1924, who added popular French and foreign songs.

The choir has toured over 80 countries and was affectionately named the "messenger of peace" by the Pope.

On June 2, they will perform a series of classic Gregorian chants at Shanghai City Theatre.

As a regular part of the Croisements Festival, the Fête de la Musique has been held in Shanghai every summer since 2010. This year it will take place over June 21 and 22, and feature classical, jazz, rock, electro-pop and folk music from both Chinese and overseas artists at venues around the city. The shows are free and open to all.

Confirmed acts from France include rap group IAM, and Deluxe, a band whose music style combines funk, electro and hip-hop.

La Dance Project Tour is a show put on by an artist collective founded by Benjamin Millepied, a renowned figure of French choreography and incoming dance director of the Opéra de Paris. The project gathers artists, musicians, graphic designers and movie makers to explore new ways of tackling choreography in all possible stage forms. (June 5, 7:30 pm Shanghai Grand Theatre)

Romeo and Juliette performed by characters made of cork

Theater & Circus

The ballet Romeo and Juliette is a major work of Sergei Prokofiev. But have you seen it performed by characters made of cork? Through miniaturization and playfulness, the French artist, Ivan Pommet, interprets this classic ballet using a group of dancers sculpted from cork. The cork figures inhabit a miniature theater, and are manipulated in full sight of all. (June 1, 3:30 pm, Alliance Française de Shanghai)

Imagine Yourself is a mime and dance show performed by Julien Cottereau, a mime artist and clown who trained at the prestigious Cirque du Soleil and was awarded the Molière in 2007 for best new male artist. Made up of six small performances, Imagine Yourself will delight both young and old (June 7, 2 pm and June 8, 2 pm and 7:30 pm, Shanghai Art Theatre).

Exhibitions & Street Art

Decorum - Carpets and Tapestries of Artists is an exhibition of more than 100 handcrafted carpets and tapestries both in China and abroad, dating as far back as the Middle Ages.

Often mistakenly considered to be a minor genre of the arts, carpets and tapestries have actually served as objects of appropriation and interpretation for many of the greatest modern artists, ranging from William Morris to Picasso. The exhibit brought by the City of Paris' Museum of Modern Art will be set up in the Power Station of Art, Shanghai from April 26 to July 13.

In Inside Out Photobooth, French artist JR will drive his truck around Shanghai from May 16 to July 15, offering people the chance to climb aboard and have their picture taken in his mobile photo booth. Within one minute, a black-and-white print will be produced, and the subject will be asked to paste it up for display in a public space.

To date, over 130,000 portraits have been printed at Inside Out Photobooth locations around the world.

For further information of the 2014 Croisements Festival, visit www.faguowenhua.com/croisements?lang=en.