(MENAFNEditorial) Chinese business leader fosters religious and cultural diversity through movies Brian Grim (left), Jonathan Shen (center) and Y. W. Junardy (right) gather at Christ the Redeemer during a tour at the Global Business & Interfaith Peace awards in Rio de Janeiro.
Jonathan Shen, CEO of Shinework Media, honored for his interfaith work in the media industry at the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards
BEIJING, CHINA, December 5, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Over the past 16 years, Jonathan Shen Jian has made hundreds of films in over 85 countries. But he's not just hunting for blockbusters for Shinework Media, a Chinese film company. Shen's movies also attempt to extend interfaith understanding to over 1 billion people in China's media market.
Shen was honored at the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards in Rio de Janeiro this fall for creating cross-cultural media bridging religious and cultural divides in China. Shen joined 12 other business-leaders from around the world who were honored for using business to promote religious and cultural diversity by the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation and the United Nations Global Compact Business for Peace.
In a country where religious activity must take place within government-sanctioned organizations, Shen's movies attempt to expand knowledge and foster collaboration between the world's religions.
'Movies are vehicles of cultural diversity,' he said. 'If people watch movies with different cultures, different religions, different ways of life in them, they will understand each other.'
Many of Shen's movies are collaborations between countries. He travels all over the world looking for stories that bridge national and cultural divides.
Shen said that while he's always loved movies, his inspiration for pursuing religious subjects came from his grandmothers, who were Christian and Buddhist. Their respect for people who disagreed with their religious beliefs inspired him to spread that respect across the country, he said.
'I believe that every religion I have encountered is respectful and always asks people to be good and to help their family and society,' he said. 'Religion is very important for the harmony of society.'
People across China and across the world need to understand China's rich variety of faiths and cultures, Shen said. He said movies can be an ideal channel for interfaith understanding and religious diversity.
'Cinema is one of the greatest inventions of all time,' he said. 'I find that you really get support from the people for movies. It really is the mass media.'
With Shinework, Shen has signed the first co-productions between Chinese and Indian and Iranian media. He's made a movie about an Iranian Kung Fu fan who embarked on a pilgrimage from Iran to the Shaolin Temple in China.
He's currently waiting on a script for a movie about soccer set in Brazil. He also hopes to set up an international film festival that will highlight interfaith and cross-cultural films.
She said whatever project he chooses next, he'll keep looking for films that contribute to interfaith understandings and to religious dialogue.
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