Most Chinese adore Brazil's soccer, dance and carnival.

"(But) Brazilian culture is still little known in China," Brazil's consul-general in Shanghai Ana Candida Perez says.

That might change this month, as September is the Month of Brazil in China - a series of events promoting the Latin American country's culture, cuisine and lifestyles in several Chinese cities.

"In September, we want to go beyond football and carnival, and showcase in China other aspects of Brazilian culture," Perez says. "We are bringing to China photographers, musicians, cuisine chefs, designers, writers, new feature films and documentaries."

China is Brazil's biggest trade partner and an important investor in the rapidly developing country. But cultural exchanges have lagged behind economic engagement, Shanghai's news office director Chen Jingxi says.

"Shanghai went to introduce our city to the people in Brazil last year, and now we can return their kindness and help to improve our people's knowledge about Brazil," Chen says.

Brazil celebrates its national day on Sept 7. This year is the 40th anniversary of Sino-Brazilian diplomatic relations, so the China-Brazil High Level Commission for Coordination and Cooperation had recommended the Month of Brazil in China run this September.

Most events will be staged in Beijing and Shanghai. Some will visit such cities as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Macao, Nanjing and Wuxi.

Francis Hime, a veteran composer, pianist and singer, met with audiences in Shanghai at the Minsheng Museum of Modern Art on Sept 8 to share his experiences with bossa nova and Tropicalia - a 1960s Brazilian cultural movement that fuses local melodies with African beats and rock. He and his wife Olivia staged a concert in Shanghai's Qianshuiwan Theater the day before. Bossa nova was born in the 1950s, and soon spread to the rest of the world. It's a mix of samba, which is rooted in Africa, and cool jazz, which arose after World War II, Hime says.

"Many people don't know Ono Lisa came from Brazil," says Shanghai music and film critic Sun Mengjin, a moderator for Hime's lecture.

Ono Lisa is a Japanese-Brazilian singer who has staged several successful concert tours in China. "She grew up in Sao Paolo, where there is a quite big community of immigrants from Japan," Sun says. "Brazil is a country of diverse ethnic composition. It's a very colorful and musical nation, with great impact on the world music scene."

It's cultural richness and vitality is also reflected in the film industry.

"The colors and shapes are different from what Chinese audiences are familiar with," Beijing film critic Wang Xudong explains. "We Chinese may think the contrasts are too sharp or inharmonious, but that's the visual stimulation."

The Cinema Novo movement, which stresses equality and intellectualism, started in Brazil in the 1960s and was an important page in global film history. The country has since gone on to make high-quality films about social problems relevant to all the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which are in the same economic development phase, Wang says.

An important part of the Month of Brazil in China is the Brapeq Brazil Film Festival, which is held in Beijing and Shanghai this month.

Six films will be shown. Perez, the consul general, especially recommends My Sweet Orange Tree, directed by Marcos Bernstein.

The international-award-winning film is about a sensitive boy who tells his secrets to an orange tree. The book by the same title upon which the movie is based has been translated into 16 languages, including Chinese.

"These six are the latest releases of Brazilian films," Perez says. "I'd like people to see that our films are as good as the Hollywood productions."

Another way to experience authentic Brazilian culture is through its cuisine.

Latina restaurant is said to be the first to have introduced Brazilian churrasco (barbeque) to China 15 years ago. The Sino-Brazilian joint venture has three chains in Shanghai, and plans to expand into Chengdu and Shenzhen next year.

"When we just introduced the service style - with the waiter coming to your table with a skewer and knife, cutting various kinds of meat for you - it was more popular among expatriates in Shanghai," Latina's marketing manager Chelsea Zhu says.

Now Latina's restaurants see more Chinese than foreigners, although its catering service is still used by more Westerners than Chinese. "Many Chinese people are beginning to host outdoor parties, and I believe the professional catering service will be more and more popular," Zhu says.

Latina's chef Paolo Machado has prepared a new menu of authentic Brazilian food for the revolving restaurant on Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower, which also hosts an ongoing photography exhibition about Brazil's landscapes and lifestyles.

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/15/2013 page15)