Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Jiang Jiang at the Kite Festival

尊敬的普雷卡总统，

同学们，朋友们，

早上好！

　　很高兴来到美丽的夏宫出席“风筝节”活动。看到这么多朝气蓬勃的面孔和形态各异的风筝，我自己仿佛也重返快乐的童年时光。

Your Excellency President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca,

Dear young friends,

I am delighted to come to the beautiful Verdala Palace and join you at the Kite Festival. 

The youthful faces, your radiant smiles, and the lovely kites of diverse forms in front of us bring back my childhood memories -- fond and happy memories of course.

　　风筝在中国已有两千多年历史，是一种广受民众喜爱的娱乐活动，也曾被用于距离测量、通讯、风向检测等领域。据记载，公元13世纪意大利人马可·波罗从中国将风筝带回欧洲，风筝开始在西方传播，并广泛应用于科学实验，还为飞机的发明提供了灵感。英国著名学者李约瑟在《中国科学技术史》一书中，把风筝列入中华民族向欧洲传播的重大发明之一。因此可以说，风筝是中西文明交流互鉴的使者。

Kites were invented in China some 2,000 years ago. Kite flying is a popular pastime and entertainment for the Chinese. 

In the ancient past, kites were also used for purposes other than pastime, such as signaling, distance measuring, wind direction monitoring, to name just a few. 

History has it that in the 13th century Italian traveler and explorer Marco Polo returned to Europa from China with a Chinese kite. It was from then on that kites were made known to Europeans, who began to love, develop and use their own kites not only for fun but also for scientific experiments. More interestingly, kites inspired the invention of airplanes. 

The Science and Civilization in China, a series of books by the British scientist and historian Joseph Needham, lists the kite as one of the significant Chinese inventions introduced to Europe. I think one may say that the kite has served as an envoy for cultural exchanges between China and the West.