为什么中美人文交流能逆流勇上？
Why people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. can bloom against the tide?
许汝艺
中国网评论员
人文交流是中美关系的基础动力。从200多年前美国商船“中国皇后号”跨洋过海首航中国，到80多年前中美并肩抗击日本法西斯，到50多年前的“乒乓外交”，此后数十年间，中美关系虽经风雨，但人文交流从未停止。
People-to-people exchanges are a fundamental driving force for the China-U.S. relationship. From the American merchant vessel "Empress of China" that made its first voyage to China more than two centuries ago, to the joint fight against the Fascists over 80 years ago, and then to the "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" more than five decades ago, people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. never stopped despite ups and downs in the following decades.
近几年，虽然中美关系发展屡遭“逆流”，但中美民间却表现出了强烈的交流愿望。即使在疫情阻碍跨国往来的时期，中美两国众多教育界人士仍通过线上论坛保持对话和合作，还有很多艺术界人士组织云端音乐会，以音乐为纽带，跨越文化，给民众带去温暖和力量。这些都为中美两国友谊注入了更多信心。线下交往恢复后，比尔·盖茨、基辛格等“大人物”纷纷访华，两国普通民众的交流交往也时时带给世界暖心的“小故事”。显然，两国人民的友谊和交流是无法阻挡的。
In recent years, several setbacks have occurred in the development of the China-U.S. relationship, but the two countries' peoples have shown strong wishes to communicate with each other. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, academics from both countries have maintained dialogues and cooperation via online forums; many musicians held online concerts, using the cross-cultural power of music to bring to the public warmth and strength amid hard times. All these have injected more confidence into the friendship between the two countries' peoples. After cross-border travel for the general public resumed, "big names" like Bill Gates and Henry Kissinger paid visits to China, and heartwarming stories came up from time to time in the exchanges between the two peoples. Evidently, the friendship and exchanges between the people of the two countries are unstoppable.
同时，中国也在不断调整政策、开放大门，为人文交流提供政策支持；加上新技术革命赋能文化产品的生产与消费，进入了“人人都是自媒体”时代，自然也让跨文化交流的“门槛”大大降低。
Meanwhile, China is adjusting its policies and opening its gate wider, which serves as the policy support for the people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. Moreover, with the new technological revolution empowering the creation and consumption of cultural products, the world is entering the "self-media era", which can also lower the threshold for cross-cultural communication.
有着强烈的内在驱动力，加上外部政策、技术的加持，就不难理解为什么中美人文交流能逆流勇上了。
Motivated by a strong desire to connect, plus with the help of policies and technologies, why people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. can thrive amid challenges can be well explained.
