Fifty-eight accordion ensembles from all over China gathered on the “Blue Dream Song” cruise ship where 1,580 Chinese and foreign accordion enthusiasts enjoyed the 2025 Asia-Pacific International Accordion Festival.

The event was with the theme of Love Life, Love Accordion! was a 5 Days and 4 Nights Accordion Music Tour. View the 18 minute event video report just below.

The Asia-Pacific Accordion Festival for 5 days and 4 nights is organised by:
Asia-Pacific Accordion Festival Organizer and Organizing Committee;
Co-organizer: Hohner Accordion;
Hohner Arts Foundation;
Malaysia, Chinese Culture and Arts Federation;
Korean Accordion Education Alliance;
Japan Accordion Culture and Arts Association.

Below are segments from an article published in Chinese language by the China Guyuan News Network at: https://www.rmzxw.com.cn/c/2025-04-08/3705990.shtml?n2m=1

Playing a new chapter in accordion art and painting a new scene of international exchanges for the elderly.

Event Organizing Committee teachers Ding Peng and Huang Da were interviewed by reporters.

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In the era of promoting international cultural and artistic exchanges and mutual learning, promoting the integration of health care, culture and tourism, and serving the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative, the 2025 Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival was held on the “Blue Dream Song” cruise ship from March 30 to April 3. This year’s art festival ushered in the 10th anniversary celebration. It has played an irreplaceable and positive role in enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly group and promoting international cultural exchanges, demonstrating a significant influence of the times.

During the preparation of the event, the reporter conducted an in-depth interview with Ding Peng and Huang Da, chairman of the art festival, on key issues such as the development direction of the art festival, international exchanges and cultural and tourism integration. Mr. Ding Peng serves as the Executive President of the Malaysian Chinese Culture and Art Federation, Vice Chairman of the Trossingen International Accordion Music Festival in Germany, and Judge of the Samara World Accordion Championship in Russia. With his rich experience in international cultural exchanges and profound attainments in accordion art, he has proposed forward-looking ideas and measures to promote the internationalization of Chinese accordion art and the integration of culture and tourism.

For many years, the organizers of the Asia-Pacific International Art Festival have been committed to promoting the development of Chinese accordion culture and art, and have made it their unswerving pursuit to help the prosperity of Chinese accordion art. They have built the Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival, a normalized and internationalized art exchange platform. Through professional accordion training and extensive public welfare performance exchange activities, they have brought accordion culture into schools and communities, effectively enhancing the social influence of accordion art and injecting strong impetus into the inheritance and innovation of accordion culture and art.

Ding Peng, Chairman of the Art Festival, pointed out that the 2025 Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival is a vivid practice of telling Chinese stories well and strengthening cultural confidence. During the festival, on the one hand, we worked closely with artists to explore the excellent traditional Chinese culture, incorporate classic elements such as Peking Opera and folk songs into the creation of accordion repertoires, and make the accordion a powerful carrier for spreading China’s voice; on the other hand, we organized the elderly accordion group to board the cruise stage and perform confidently, fully demonstrating the Chinese elderly group’s yearning and love for a better life and their persistence in art, and highlighting the unique charm of Chinese culture in the new era.

Talking about the path of Chinese accordion art to the international stage, Ding Peng believes that the simultaneous innovation of content and form is crucial. In terms of content creation, artists are encouraged to base themselves on diverse cultures and create accordion works that have both contemporary and regional characteristics, injecting new vitality into traditional accordion art; in terms of dissemination forms, we fully utilize cutting-edge technologies such as online live broadcasts and AI technology to break regional restrictions, enhance the global influence of the festival, and attract more international friends to pay attention to accordion art.

With the help of AI technology, an online virtual concert hall is built, allowing audiences from all over the world to stay at home and immersively experience the excitement of the festival and feel the unique charm of accordion art. In terms of the integration of culture and tourism, Ding Peng introduced that holding an art festival with cruise ships as a carrier is a useful attempt to explore the integration of culture and tourism. Since the art festival was held in cooperation with Costa’s “Victoria” cruise ship in 2015, the organizers have continued to explore and have successfully held art festivals on Costa’s “Selena” cruise ship and the “Meiwei·Hyatt” cruise ship in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River; and held accordion concerts in landmark venues such as the Boao Forum for Asia International Conference Center in Hainan, the Vladivostok National Cultural Center in Russia, the National Concert Hall of the Twin Towers in Malaysia, and the Hohner Concert Hall in Trossingen, Germany.

In the future, the organizers will deepen cooperation with more high-quality cultural and tourism destinations to create a special music and cultural tourism route with accordion art as the theme, so that participants can experience the local history, culture and customs while immersing in the charm of accordion art, and promote the deep integration of art and travel. In addition, cruise ships, as mobile cultural carriers, provide a good opportunity to promote marine culture. The art festival will incorporate marine cultural elements and actively promote international cultural and artistic exchanges among countries participating in the “Belt and Road” initiative.

As a director of the Beijing Overseas Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the head of the Beijing Fanghua Art Troupe, Huang Da has been deeply involved in the field of international culture and art for a long time, and has made outstanding achievements in organizing cultural exchange activities and promoting art to serve the public. She emphasized that international cultural and artistic exchanges need to establish a normalized and long-term cooperation mechanism.

At present, the art festival has reached cooperation intentions with art groups in many countries, and has enhanced mutual understanding and cooperation among countries in the field of art through mutual exchange of artists and joint performances. At the same time, it attaches great importance to the training of accordion talents, and is committed to building an accordion talent team with an international perspective to lay a solid talent foundation for the international development of accordion art. In terms of cultural and tourism integration, Huang Da proposed to deeply explore the points of convergence between accordion art and local culture, develop accordion cultural and creative products with regional characteristics, hold accordion cultural exhibitions, enrich the cultural connotation of cultural and tourism integration, and enhance the cultural experience of tourists.

Relying on domestic and foreign art network resources, broaden the promotion channels of accordion cultural and tourism projects, promote the organic combination of accordion art and cultural exchanges, and achieve the coordinated development of culture and economy. With the help of the art festival cruise, we spread the marine culture and contribute to the international cultural and artistic exchanges of the countries co-building the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the art festival, 58 accordion orchestras from all over the country and 1,580 Chinese and foreign accordion enthusiasts boarded the “Song of Blue Dream” cruise ship to start a 5-day, 4-night art journey, passing through Fukuoka, Japan and Jeju Island, South Korea. In addition, the art festival also invited artists from Russia, Colombia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, who gathered with the elderly group to participate in the art event and actively promote international cultural exchanges.

At 10:01 am on April 2, on the top deck of the “Song of Blue Dream” cruise ship, the accordion accompanied the chorus of thousands of people singing “My Motherland and I” with an exciting melody that echoed for a long time between the sea and the sky. Every beating note is our most ardent love for the motherland; every melodious melody is a deep tribute to the glorious years of the motherland. With the sea as witness, the blue sky as curtain, the accordion as bridge, and the singing as bond, we can express our infinite love for the motherland.

The “Song of Blue Dream” sailing on the vast ocean has become a mobile messenger for spreading marine culture. The art festival has carefully set up a cruise cultural display area, popularizing knowledge of marine ecology, maritime history, etc. to participants through pictures, texts, and images, organically combining accordion performance with marine cultural themes, creating and arranging marine style music, so that the audience can appreciate the unique charm of marine culture in the melodious music. At the same time, with this cruise voyage as a link, the art festival has built a bridge for cultural and artistic exchanges along the “Belt and Road” and promoted the collision and integration of artistic concepts between different countries.

After ten years of development, the Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival has become an important art exchange platform that transcends national boundaries, nationalities, and cultures. When the elderly group stepped onto the “Song of Blue Dream” cruise, a sea accordion cultural feast that combines art and romance officially kicked off. The melodious accordion sound is sometimes passionate and sometimes soothing, breaking the barriers of language and culture. Russian artists bring performances full of Eastern European style, showing the heroism and depth of the Russian land; Colombian artists convey the enthusiasm and vitality of Latin America with unrestrained rhythms; Malaysian artists incorporate multi-ethnic music elements to let tropical style flow in the piano sound; Kazakhstan artists tell the moving stories of nomadic peoples with melodies with grassland characteristics. These wonderful performances not only bring an audio-visual feast to the elderly group, but also open a door to the world of diverse music for them, greatly enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly group.

Accordion art injects continuous vitality into the health and wellness life of the elderly group with its unique charm. During the preparation of the art festival, accordion enthusiasts from all over the country devoted themselves to practice, exercised hand flexibility, stimulated brain thinking, and enriched their spiritual world. On the stage of the art festival, they confidently showed their style, learned from each other, gained a full sense of accomplishment, and effectively promoted physical and mental health. This deep integration of health care and cultural tourism not only enriches the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly, but also actively practices the international cultural and artistic exchange concept of “making friends with the accordion and sharing happiness”.

As an important platform for international cultural exchange, the Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival has created many opportunities for the elderly to connect with the international community in the past ten years. At this 10th Anniversary Celebration Art Festival, the elderly actively interacted with artists from various countries, learned advanced performance skills and concepts, spread China’s excellent culture and art to the world, and enhanced mutual understanding and friendship between people from different countries and regions. With the accordion as a link, they built a cultural bridge across national borders and promoted the development of culture and art in the Asia-Pacific region in a diversified and prosperous direction.

The 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Asia-Pacific International Accordion Art Festival in 2025 allows the elderly to shine in the ocean of art, paints a gorgeous picture of the cultural and artistic life of the middle-aged and elderly, and also writes a rich and colorful chapter for the integration of health care, culture and tourism and international cultural exchange. Looking into the future, the organizers of the festival will stick to their original aspirations, continue to play a leading role, help the elderly enrich their spiritual world, promote the inheritance and innovation of accordion art, and contribute to promoting Chinese accordion art to the world and promoting the development of Chinese accordion culture and art.

The above English text is based on the Chinese language article published by China Guyuan News Network at: https://www.rmzxw.com.cn/c/2025-04-08/3705990.shtml?n2m=1