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The Western culture is widely taught and learnt in China. But I think it is now time that China and its culture became better known to the Western world.
西方文化在中国得到了广泛的传授和学习。但我认为，现在该是西方世界熟知中国和中国文化的时候了。
I have had an enjoyable two years working and living in Britain, but I have also had some difficult times. I often find that many of the problems in our relations are caused or made worse by a lack of knowledge and understanding of each other, making it very hard to communicate as we should have.
我曾在英国愉快地工作和生活过2年时间，但我有时还是会遇到一些困难。我常常发现，我们关系中有许多问题都是由于互相缺乏认识和理解而导致或者加重的，这令我们本应该进行的交流变得异常艰难。
Last August I was in Beijing. One day, as I was walking in the street it started to rain and I popped into a bookshop. You know why. I was quite amazed at the rows after rows of bookshelves full of original books in English. But here in Britain, it is very hard to find any book on China today written by a Chinese author. Even in university libraries you won't find a good supply of books as such.
去年8月我在北京。一天，我走在街上，突然开始下雨，然后我赶紧钻进一家书店。你知道吗，我发现一排排的书架上面全是英文原版书，这让我感到非常惊讶。但在这里，也就是英国，我很难找到中国作者创作的关于今日中国的书籍。甚至是在大学的图书馆里，也没有大量这样的书籍。
This may partly explain why there is such an imbalance of information between China and the West. However, the good news is that there is now a growing interest on both sides to know more about each other.
这是中国和西方信息不平衡的部分原因。但好消息是，如今双方对彼此的兴趣愈发浓厚，希望更多地进行了解。
The Olympics has brought the world closer to China and China closer to the world and I am sure cultural programmes such as what we have here today will help to build bridges of friendship and understanding between our two great nations, little by little. And every little helps.
奥运会让世界更贴近中国，也让中国更贴近世界。我相信像今天这样的文化交流活动有助于在我们两个伟大的民族之间一步步架起友谊和理解的桥梁。积少成多。
Today, on behalf of all my diplomatic colleagues in the UK whom I represent, I give you our word that we will continue to support your programme and support cultural exchanges between the UK and the countries we represent.
今天，作为驻英各国使节的代表，我们向你们承诺，我们将继续支持你们的项目，支持我们代表的国家和英国之间的文化交流。
In conclusion, it gives me great pleasure to propose a toast to William Shakespeare, our man of the world.
最后，我非常高兴地提议，让我们为属于世界的威廉·莎士比亚干杯！
