Beijing Women's Federation

Five international families have recently been announced to be the award winners of the Seeking the Most Beautiful Family in the Capital campaign, including that of Majid Shamaeizadeh from Iran.

Taking “Beijing vs. Teheran: Let the Traditional Arts Talk” as its theme, Beijing Women International Exchange Center hosted an exchange activity  for showing the charm of international families and promoting cultural exchange on June 17 at the intangible cultural heritage base the Altar of the Moon in the city's Xicheng District.

As representatives of international families awarded the title Most Beautiful Family in the Capital, twin brothers Majid Shamaeizadeh and Massoud Shamaeezadeh attended the event with their families. They are from Iran, a prominent country along the route of the Belt and Road initiative.

During the gathering, Ma’s family showed some of the production techniques for Persian carpets, jewelry and painted enamel – which are the among the most representative items of Iranian culture and art.

Together with the inheritor of China's intangible cultural heritage gold inlaid lacquer Wu Guofen, the Shamaeezadeh brothers exhibited handicraft skills on the spot, explaining about the culture and story of traditional art across two ancient civilizations.

Wu and Shamaeezadeh demonstrated how their handcraft skills could be used as mediums to resonate and promote cultural exchange between China and Iran.

Ma hoped his family could act as cultural messengers, based on their passion and understanding of each others' culture in recent years. In future, they plan to spread Chinese culture to Iran and let more people understand Chinese arts, thereby promoting cross-border communication.

The Overseas Communication Center of newspaper Guangming Daily broadcast the activity across the globe. According to their records, the online broadcast attracted 500,000 Chinese and foreign netizen viewers, and received more than 20,000 “likes”.