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politics, but the very appearance of the artists and events before the citizens of the host country could not but inform those citizens that the United States and China were on good terms at that moment.
Although political leaders gave higher priority to relations in other fields, what the average citizen could directly experience was undoubtedly the cultural exchanges. Though the average American might be indifferent to the talks about the strategic cooperation with China and the Chinese might feel the purchase of American aircraft by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was rather remote from their life, both of them could enjoy sitting in a concert hall and listening to music by musicians from the other country. Furthermore, once citizens of one country accept the culture of another and once that culture becomes a part of their life, even a very small portion of their life, they would feel uncomfortable if that part of life disappeared. Therefore, pressure for the restoration of such cultural contacts might actually be considered, at least partially, as a guarantee of continuing good relationship.
Arts exchanges, particularly those conducted through people-to-people contacts, are one of the best ways for citizens of different countries to understand each other. The intensive exchanges in arts in the period of 1979 and 1981 succeeded enormously in making a strong, positive image of the United States in China and vice versa, and this image functioned in maintaining a substantial number of exchanges between the two countries in the succeeding years in which domestic and bilateral developments were much less favourable to a healthy relationship in culture. To a large degree, the contacts established through arts exchanges have served as a counterweight to the isolationist tendencies within Chinese society.
Nonetheless, the most immediate concern in discussing the consequences of arts exchanges with the United States is probably their impact on China's cultural life. In this connection, the incoming American arts groups fulfilled the Chinese expectations for high-level cultural events and diversity. Especially in the period between 1979 and 1981, which was not too far removed from the Cultural Revolution, the dramatic increase in American cultural presence on the Chinese scene posed a sharp contrast with the monochrome culture formed in the Cultural Revolution and maintained in the few years following its conclusion, and helped in expanding cultural pluralism in China.