Cervantes Institute opens new branch in Shanghai

After setting up its first branch in Beijing in 2006, the Cervantes Institute opened its second branch in Shanghai on Tuesday, making Spain the first European country to have official cultural institutions in two Chinese cities.    

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the opening ceremony of the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai on Tuesday morning amid his ongoing visit to China.

"Language and culture are the most useful links to unite civilizations and friendly countries like us [Spain and China]," said Sanchez in a speech delivered at the ceremony. The shared interest in languages between the people of the two countries has strengthened bilateral relationships, noted Sanchez. 

Covering an area of 1,200 square meters in the downtown Xuhui district, the newly opened Cervantes Institute in Shanghai was transformed from the former Cervantes Library, which has more than 12,000 books in Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque.

The library, now a major part of the current institute, also has a China collection, including translated works from Chinese to Spanish and from Spanish to Chinese, as well as some earlier Spanish books about China.

The establishment of the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai shows the great importance that both the Chinese and Spanish governments and peoples attach to the friendly relations between the two countries, said Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, who also attended the opening ceremony.

"I look forward to [seeing] more Chinese people learn about the Spanish language and culture at the institute, so as to further promote two-way communication between China and Spain," Montero told the Global Times in an exclusive ­interview on Tuesday afternoon. 

The Cervantes Institute, or Instituto Cervantes in Spanish, is a public institution created by the Spain government in 1991 to globally promote teaching, study and use of Spanish, and contribute to the dissemination of pan-Hispanic culture.