The opening ceremony for the book exhibition A Slovenian in theForbidden City: Ferdinand Augustine Hallerstein and for the ChineseCulture Month at the Confucius Institute in the University ofLjubljana was held in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum on theafternoon of 10 April 2014. The event was organized by theSUIBE-cosponsored Confucius Institute Ljubljana in collaborationwith the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum and Mladinska KnjigaPublisher. Mr. Zhang Xianyi, the Chinese Ambassador to Slovenia,delivered the opening address at the ceremony. Mr. Bojana Skafar,Curator of the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, and Mr. DanijelaVoljč, Director of the Confucius Institute Ljubljana on theSlovenian side, made congratulatory remarks. Over 100 peopleattended the ceremony.
With a preface by the President of the Republic of Slovenia BorutPahor and by the Chinese Ambassador to Slovenia Zhang Xianyi, thebook A Slovenian in the Forbidden City: Ferdinand AugustineHallerstein was written and illustrated by Wang Huiqin, aSlovenian-Chinese artist. Written in both Slovenian and Chinese,the book narrates the life and work of Ferdinand Augustin Hallervon Hallerstein (1703–1704), a famous Slovenian astronomer who cameto China as a Jesuit missionary and served as the Head of theImperial Astronomical Bureau at the Emperor Qianlong court for over30 years. Hallerstein, known in China by his Chinese name LiuSongling, is credited with being the first “cultural ambassador” inthe history of Slovenia and China.