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succeeding years.
The significant turnabout of Sino-American cultural relations, especially arts exchanges, came in 1979 when some ten American performing groups came to China for public appearances while some Chinese groups toured the United States. There were also exchanges of arts educators and prominent artists in that year, some of whose tours were sponsored by the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange, an institution established to that end on 1 October, 1978.
A little earlier there had been a little-publicized thaw in 1978, when a Chinese American's Chinese-style paintings were exhibited in Beijing and the China Film Export and Import Corporation (CFEIC) made its first purchase of an American movie, the Convoy, directly from an American company. Subsequently, the CFEIC purchased a film, Future World, and accepted a gift, the Nightmare, in 1979. In 1979 all three movies were shown to the public. The Chinese television stations soon followed suit by buying a 17-episode TV series which, according to the contract, was to be allowed three transmissions in China in the next four years. On the American side, an American company purchased 14 Chinese movies in 1979 in a single deal.
The rise of Chinese interest in American arts was also demonstrated in another field, the theatre. In December 1979, a play adapted from an American movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was staged by the Chinese Youth Theatre in Beijing. The fever over American arts inaugurated in 1979 was increasingly developed in the following two years. In 1980, 13 American performing arts groups appeared on Chinese stages while the number climbed to 22 in 1981, a record which still stands today.
After this high-point, the inflow of American culture fluctuated depending on several factors. In 1983 there was a slight increase followed by a downturn in 1984. In 1985 there was again a revival of American cultural influx.
The first major group of Chinese artists arrived in the United States in 1980, following a major event in the previous year. As appearances of Chinese artists in the States are more difficult to trace, especially for researchers in China, the statistics in this paper can only reflect major artistic events. In this case, the figures show a slight increase generally.