Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture of Greece at the press conference in Beijing on October 20, 2026 Photo: Dong Feng/Global Times

China is home to the oldest civilization in the East, while Greece holds the oldest civilization in the West; both countries have made vital contributions to the development of civilization in their respective regions, a senior Greek official said at a recent press conference in Beijing. 

In today's turbulent world, marked by numerous challenges and upheavals, the wisdom embodied by these two great civilizations can offer essential and highly meaningful insights into addressing these issues, Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture of Greece, who visited China for the 4th Liangzhu Forum, said at the press conference held by the Greek Embassy in China on Tuesday. 

Mendoni affirmed that China and Greece can promote mutual learning among civilizations and offer an exemplary model of peaceful coexistence and common development among different civilizations.

China has the most ancient civilization in the East, while Greece has the most ancient civilization in the West, and both countries have made vital contributions to their respective regions, she said. 

"Today we're facing lots of challenges and upheavals. So our two classical civilizations can provide with their wisdom, very essential, very meaningful answers to today's problems. Even though our two civilizations did not come into great contact with each other, they do have lots of common elements, and thus our cooperation in the cultural field can produce even better results," said Mendoni.

Ancient wisdom can offer answers to many contemporary problems, including climate change, or even the challenges we're facing due to new technologies. We can find answers in ancient wisdom, Mendoni said. 

The minister then highlighted key collaborative projects between Greece and China in cultural heritage and the digitalization of cultural relics.

Mendoni told the Global Times that the cultural exchanges between the two countries have been ongoing for years. 

"I'd say that one of the main projects of cultural cooperation is organizing exhibitions in both countries, with Greek exhibitions in China and Chinese exhibitions in Greece."

Greek people are familiar with and appreciate Chinese culture, and past Chinese exhibitions in Greece have been very successful, Mendoni said. 

She said the two countries are preparing for an exhibition of Chinese porcelain in Greece.

"In the past, we had an exhibition at Acropolis Museum in Athens on Emperor Qianlong," Mendoni added.

The exhibition From the Forbidden City: The Imperial Apartments of Qianlong was staged at Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, in mid-September 2018.

It was a huge success, Mendoni stressed. 

"On the other side, we have had more than six exhibitions in China in the past few years that have attracted millions of visitors to date," Mendoni said. 

As for technological cooperation in digitalization of cultural relics, the minister expressed a positive view.

"This cooperation extends also to our institutions, educational institutions and technical universities in Greece and China," said Mendoni, noting the interesting and important results of the scientific cooperation between the educational institutions and universities in the two countries.