The BPAFFC held the “Together for a Community with a Shared Future” Beijing-Africa Friendly Exchange on October 13, together with the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, Fengtai District, and China Media Group. This event was designed to implement the guidelines of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and leverage non-governmental channels to support the building of an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era. Over 100 people participated in the event, including experts and students from 23 African countries who are studying or working in Beijing, high-ranking officials of the organizers, and representatives of the directors of the BPAFFC.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy, and steady progress is being made in the action plan for high-quality development of southern Beijing. Against this backdrop, the participants started their tour with Lize SOHO, where they got a glimpse of the development status of southern Beijing in the “Cloud Showroom” and learned about the development plan and vision of Fengtai District.
At EVE Group by the banks of the Yongding River, the participants got to know how the Beijing-based private enterprise has stayed committed to its founding aspiration, performed its corporate social responsibility, and carried out the “Shenshan Marketplace” project to help ethnic minorities raise their incomes by tapping into traditional culture and developing cultural and creative products with local characteristics. The visiting African friends said that this practice provides valuable inspiration for Africa to capitalize on its abundant traditional cultural resources to find a development path with its own characteristics and in line with its own realities.
Promoting mutual learning between civilizations is an important way to enhance people-to-people bond. Drawing on the experience of the FOCAC Beijing Summit, the Beijing-Africa Friendly Exchange invited national inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and artists based in Fengtai District to engage in eight intangible cultural heritage experience activities, including kites, inside painted snuff bottles, cloisonne, colored Peking Opera masks, inside painted dough sculptures, shadow puppets, straw plaiting, and fan making. These eight items are all traditional arts of Beijing. The artists created a novel experience for African friends by combining traditional art forms with modern elements, technology elements, and African flavors.
Chinese and foreign guests all immersed themselves in the fun and fabulous tour and the friendly atmosphere, and they warmed up to each other instantly as if they were old friends reuniting. They also had a lively exchange of views on how non-governmental channels help build an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era and promote people-to-people bond and practical cooperation.
Wang Yanxia, Vice President of the BPAFFC, moderated the sharing session. Qiao Xuehui, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, Tian Tao, Deputy District Mayor of Fengtai District, and Duan Shuang, deputy editor-in-chief of www.cri.cn, gave welcome speeches. Zhang Qian, Executive Vice President of the BPAFFC, delivered closing remarks.
A number of guests shared their feelings and views on the friendship between Chinese and African people, including Fadhili Mpunji, a Tanzanian announcer and commentator and a recipient of the Chinese Government Friendship Award; Joseph Olivier Mendo’o, a Cameroonian student who received two replies from President Xi Jinping; Dong Bin, chief representative of the Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation; Chen Cong, member of the Capital High-end Think Tank Council of the Beijing Administration Institute; Li Yue, Director of the Beijing Women’s International Center; Liu Qinghai, a doctor who used to work on the medical foreign aid team of Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University; and several international students from Beijing University of Technology. Their sharing spanned a wide range of topics, such as international communication, economy and trade, think tanks, women, healthcare, culture, and youth.
As the daylight faded, Beijing Garden Expo Park was illuminated with a dazzling display of over 200 lanterns. These exquisitely designed lanterns are scattered in nine themed areas of the ongoing Beijing Color Lantern Festival, the largest lantern festival in the capital. The African friends admired the lanterns and took photos of them with great interest, accumulating fond memories of Beijing and expressing their wishes for China-Africa friendship.
