Creators and actors of the first BRICS co-production, Where Has Time Gone? from BRICS countries are invited to the stage at the opening ceremony of the Second BRICS Film Festival in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, on 23 June 2017 (COURTESY)

Together We Are 

Like a little bit of starlight shining together in the sky 

Together We Are  

Sharing an inclusive world 

At the 2023 BRICS Seminar on Governance & Cultural Exchange Forum held in March in Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province, the world premiere of the theme song of BRICS cooperation, Together We Are, was greeted with bursts of applause and cheers. 

Wang Liguang, president of the Chinese Conservatory of Music, the creator of the song, said that he hoped the song could further unite people’s hearts in the BRICS countries and stimulate the cooperation momentum of the BRICS countries to construct a more comprehensive, close, pragmatic and inclusive partnership. 

Friendship, which derives from close contact among people, holds the key to robust state-to-state relations. Cooperation among the BRICS countries rests on respecting the diversity and promoting closeness among the peoples. In this aspect, the BRICS countries have made notable progress in strengthening cooperation mechanisms to boost multilateral collaboration in fields like film, sports, tourism and media. This has expanded space for cooperation and laid a strong popular foundation for consolidating the BRICS grouping. 

A still from the third BRICS co-production film Neighbors 

Power of images 

At the 2022 BRICS Film Festival held in July 2022, South African actress Zikhona Bali’s performance in Thando got her the Best Actress award. Bali plays the protagonist Thando, a girl who explores the increasingly prevalent issues of teenage pregnancy, suicide, bullying at schools, cyber-bullying, and racism. 

The film was screened during the festival in Shanghai’s cinemas and was highly praised by Chinese audiences. “The film gives a chilling glimpse into the real-life experiences of some South African teenagers who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The film is emotional and thought provoking, but ultimately uplifting, giving hope and courage to girls who have similar experiences,” a Chinese netizen using the name Ximen commented in a post on the Chinese movie rating site Douban. 

Film exchanges are indeed a process of mutual learning among different cultures. Each country adopted their typical elements, and the movie was finally perfected after communication and fusion of ideas, said Zhang Hongsen, vice president of the China Writers Association.  

The BRICS cooperation and exchanges in films began early. At the Seventh BRICS Summit in Ufa, Russia, in 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested the member countries to organise popular events like an annual football tournament for young people under 15 and a BRICS film festival to share cooperation, cultures and stories. Subsequently, the First BRICS Film Festival was held in New Delhi, India, in 2016, followed by the 2017 edition in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, in the run-up to the Ninth BRICS Summit held in September of that year in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province.  

The Chengdu film festival saw the premiere of the first BRICS co-production, Where Has Time Gone?, a 110-minute anthology of five short films made by five filmmakers from the five countries on the theme of time. 

“The emotions from all five stories can be shared by anyone in any country,” Jia Zhangke, one of the most recognised modern Chinese directors and the coordinator of the co-production, said. “We share social similarities and profound civilisations, but we have different ways of dealing with challenges in a world where lives are changing so fast.”  

The idea of a BRICS collaborative film came from Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Eighth BRICS Summit in Goa, India, in 2016, and received supportive responses from the five BRICS countries.  

In 2018, the second BRICS co-production film Half the Sky was released, which consisted of five short stories - all about women - each directed by a different filmmaker. In 2019, the third BRICS co-production film Neighbours was released. 

Jia said that the BRICS countries are fast-growing economies and boast active film industries, but because of the geographical distance among them, it is difficult for them to understand one another. “But if the directors of the five countries can create something under the same theme, it is very meaningful. It is a motion picture way to understand one another,” he said. 

In recent years, plenty of movies from other BRICS countries have been well received in China. Indian wrestling film Dangal made history in China as the first top-grossing non-Hollywood film, winning wide praise from all sectors of the country. Chinese movies have, many times, been screened at the Moscow International Film Festival including Wolf Totem, Painted Skin and Red Sorghum. 

Breakthroughs in sports 

Sports activities and games epitomise the sheer human will and desire to overcome all odds and the aspiration to strive towards being “faster, higher and stronger.” Sporting competitions have emerged as a new feature of the BRICS cooperation over the past several years. 

The First BRICS Games took place in 2017 at Guangzhou in China. Some 300 athletes from the BRICS countries participated in men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and wushu (Chinese martial arts) competitions with a total of 10 gold medals on offer. Apart from the competitions, the organisers have also arranged a series of cultural events for the athletes and coaches at the games. 

South Africa organised the Second BRICS Games in 2018 at Johannesburg, comprising men’s/women’s volleyball and women’s football events.  

BRICS sports ministers in their first meeting on 25 August 2020 signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of physical culture and sport to strengthen cooperation in sports within BRICS countries. The document provides for cooperation in holding annual BRICS Games in the country that holds the BRICS chair; exchanges of athletes, coaches and sports experts; encouragement of athletes to participate in international sports events held in BRICS countries; and so on. 

Due to the pandemic, the BRICS Games were not held from 2019 to 2021, and the 2022 Games were held online by China, the host of the 14th BRICS Summit. The 2022 Games featured breakdancing, chess and wushu as medal events and yoga, dragon and lion dance, dragon boat racing, Brazil jiu-jitsu, and sambo as demonstration events. 

Rugby and hockey in South Africa have always enjoyed a high reputation. Brazil’s football, China’s table tennis and badminton, and Russia’s synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics dominate the world. Through the exchange of athletes and coaches, the BRICS countries are giving play to their complementary advantages in sports events and jointly improving their performances. 

A football coach from Brazil guides students in a training session in Dongguan, south China’s Guangdong Province, on 12 August 2017 (XINHUA) 

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach takes selfies with the flag bearers of the BRICS delegations at the opening ceremony of the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games held in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, on 16 August 2014 (XINHUA) 

Tourism brings closeness 

Tourism is an important aspect of cooperation among the BRICS countries. Cooperation in tourism increases people-to-people exchanges among the BRICS countries, which leads to friendship and fraternity, and enhances better understanding of each other’s culture and heritage. 

The first Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Tourism was held in São Paulo, Brazil, on 19 March 2013. Recognising the potential of tourism to contribute towards sustainable development, the 2013 BRICS eThekwini Declaration and Action Plan mentioned tourism as one of the new areas of cooperation to be explored by the BRICS countries. This was also reiterated in the Xiamen Declaration in 2017. 

In November 2018 in South Africa, the leaders welcomed the initiative to establish a BRICS Working Group on Tourism in the Johannesburg Declaration to foster greater cooperation between the BRICS countries and increase economic development and people-to-people relations. 

In March 2020 in Russia, BRICS countries discussed the creation of a Working Group for interaction on tourism issues. During the meeting, the countries’ representatives exchanged views on the current situation of the tourism sector and ways to overcome the negative consequences posed by COVID-19 to the sector. 

In September 2022, China hosted the 2022 BRICS Tourism Ministers’ Meeting. The online event discussed green and sustainable tourism and measures to deal with the challenges caused by the pandemic. The meeting focused on green and sustainable tourism, and ways to accelerate the digital transformation of the tourism sector, and support tourism-based poverty reduction. 

In March, South Africa received the first group of 13 tourists from China over the past three years. South Africa used to get 100,000 Chinese tourists per annum, but that was affected by COVID-19. Victor Tharage, director general of the National Department of Tourism of South Africa, expects the tourist arrival numbers to recover to the pre-COVID-19 levels in 2023 or 2024. 

Dancers interact with tourists from China during a welcoming ceremony at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 29 March (XINHUA) 

Sharing stories 

Media outlets play a significant role in promoting people-to-people exchanges among the BRICS countries. In recent years, the BRICS countries have witnessed deepening media cooperation. 

Launched in 2015, the BRICS Media Forum mechanism was proposed by China’s Xinhua News Agency and jointly initiated with mainstream media from the other BRICS countries. 

The forum aims to establish an efficient coordination mechanism among BRICS media, advance innovation-driven media development and gather stronger momentum for the development of the BRICS countries through exchange and pragmatic cooperation under the mechanism.  

Five forums were held in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 respectively, which issued the Beijing Declaration of the BRICS Media Summit, the Action Plan of Promoting BRICS Media Cooperation, as well as action plans of the BRICS Media Forum for 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2022-2023. Several documents have been incorporated into the BRICS summit declarations. 

During the BRICS Seminar on Governance & Cultural Exchange Forum held in March, the BRICS Association for Visual Arts and the BRICS Media & Think Tank Association were inaugurated. The visual arts association aims at strengthening cross-cultural communication through images among the BRICS countries, while the objective of the media and think tank association is to enhance the influence of BRICS countries by promoting interaction among media organisations and think tanks.