The exchanges, funded by the Asian Cultural Council, began in 2001 as region-to-region arts interactions across international borders. They were esigned to engage with issues of diversity of culture in the age of globalization. They were based on the reasoning that some regions may have more to say to oine another, quite outside of national categories. And that advances in media and information technology has given this a new importance and possibility.
This article was written about the second of these exchanges: a visit by the Appalachian filmmakers to the southern cities of Chengdu and Kunming in 2003.