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Óttar Felix ávarpaði Kaupstefnuna í Shanghai
Ávarp Óttars Felix Haukssonar á kaupstefnunni í Shanghai í október 2005:

Honorable organizing committee of Shanghai Art Festival, dear friends and fellow participants.

It is a great honor for me to stand here and share with you my thoughts about the experience, that I have had, trying to build a little cultural bridge between China and Europe. This experience has taken me three times to this wonderful city of Shanghai through my relationship with our Chinese friends at The Shanghai Art Festival organization and the staff of Shanghai’s Audio and Video Publishing House. It all started nearly two years ago in France at the Midem music fair in Cannes, that was in January 2004.

I had then newly become owner of the recordings of the famous Italian boy soprano Robertino and I was presenting the recordings at Midem. This music woke interest of the people from Shanghai Audio and Video Publishing House and when I got back from Midem I sent them information about my project and we started negotiations for a Chinese publication of the songs of Robertino. It resulted in my first trip to Shanghai in the month of May that year. I came here with my wife and we enjoyed a great hospitality from the Chinese publishing house in Shanghai, We undersigned a license agreement for the Robertino project and exchanged in some music from our countries.

It is certainly a different procedure for a European company to make a record contract or a license agreement here in China. There are other rules and much stronger checks regarding many things, than we Europeans are used to, especially regarding lyrics and all written material. But to overcome all hurdles that can be in the way, before releasing a record in China there are three words one should bear in mind; love, faith and respect.

Love for the music you are working with. Without that love, it will be much more difficult to reach the heart of other people with your task. Faith is also an important thing, You have to have faith to believe all the time that you can pull out the task, no matter how difficult sometimes it seems, This strong faith can lift you over several hurdles. Last but not at least is the word respect, deep respect for the market and the people you are dealing with. Respecting their needs, respecting their culture, Culture that is build on a heritage much older than ours. They have their ethical background and principles one cannot learn in few visits, but if you show the people you are dealing with respect and kindness, you will fare well in your business affairs here in China.

I would like to thank Mrs. Wei Zhi, president of Shanghai Audio and Video publishing house for all the kindness and respect she has shown me and the organising committee for inviting me and I wish you all a successful and pleasant stay at the fair.

Thank you.