The 3rd Interview of “Life in China Presented by ASEAN Residents and Students” Interview Series

(Interactive Dialogue with the Thai Assistant Professor)

ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), in collaboration with China Radio International (CRI), has been co-organizing“Life in China Presented by ASEAN Residents and Students” Interview Series in 2014 in support of 2014 ASEAN-China Cultural Exchange Year. ACC and CRI have always conducted 3 interviews with ASEAN residents and students in China about their life experience in China as well as their fond and intimate feelings with China and the Chinese people. Each interview highlighted different categories of interviewees in order to widely cover various areas of occupations, life and experience. This project is to promote mutual understanding and people-to-people linkages among the peoples of ASEAN and China in a more sustainable manner.

On 2 July 2014, the 3rd interview of “Life in China Presented by ASEAN Residents and Students” was conducted at the Thai Service studio of CRI, having Assistant Professor Kuapan Nakbubpa as the special guest. Ms. Kuapan is currently an exchange lecturer for Thai language between Chiang Mai Rajabhat University (CMRU) and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). With more than 20-year experience at BFSU and in China, Ms. Kuapan has received 2 distinguishing awards from the Chinese government, which are Youyi Award (Gold Medal 45 Grams) in 2005 and the Most Favorite Teacher for Chinese Students Award (Ranking No. 6 from 50 selected teachers in national wide) in 2014. She has proven to be one of the most beloved teachers among the Chinese students, who are now working at leading agencies and offices such as the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CRI.

Ms. Lada Phumas, Director of Information and Public Relations Division (IPRD) of ACC, joined Mr. Cui Yimeng (Mr. Chomphon - Thai name), a Thai Service Reporter of CRI’s Thai radio program, who was also Ms. Kuapan's student, conducted a 50-minute interactive dialogue with Ms. Kuapan. Director Lada introduced ACC and its mandate laid out by the leaders of ASEAN and China to promote ASEAN-China relations, ACC activities and projects to concretize the visions of ASEAN and China, and ACC's roles to raise awareness about ASEAN-China relations and ACC itself through the program such as "Life in China".

The interactive interview with Ms. Kuapan focused on 4 topics including past experience and presents life in China, working experience and challenges, impression about China and the Chinese students, and the roles in enhancing the relations between Thailand and China and between ASEAN and China. While Ms. Kuapan expressed her great feelings about the Chinese students who are diligent and ready to absorb knowledge about the Thai language and culture, Director Lada also shared her vivid experience in interacting with the Chinese students during her lectures on ASEAN-China relations delivered at almost 10 universities in China. Both Ms. Kuapan and Director Lada were very impressed by those active and responsible students. Ms. Kuapan also spoke high of ACC's proactive responsibility to raise profile of ASEAN-China relations and ACC among the Chinese.

“Life in China Presented by ASEAN Residents and Students” is one of ACC’s projects and an interview series which have been implemented for 3 times in 2014. The 1st interview with the Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian students, as a part of CRI's English radio program entitled “Voices from the Other Lands”, was aired at AM846 on 10 April 2014, and at FM91.5 on 13 April 2014 respectively, and on CRI website: http://english,cri,cn/7146/2014/04/10/2422s821435.htm. "Voice from Other Lands" is a popular radio program of CRI, which is broadcast in more than 30 countries around the world and enjoys millions of listeners. Apart of the interview, which was about the students' perspectives on the 2014 ASEAN-China Cultural Exchange Year, was also shown in video to the ministerial representatives of culture of ASEAN who visited ACC on 8 April 2014. The 2nd interview with the Lao students of Yunnan Agricultural University (YAU) was a part of CRI's Lao radio program, aired through CRI radio network at FM93 in Laos and broadcasted on CRI website. 

This 3rd interview was a part of CRI's Thai radio program entitled "Talk One Issue A Day". It was aired through CRI radio network of Chulalongkorn University Radio station at FM101.5 in Thailand on 8 and 11 July 2014 at 16:30 hrs. (Thailand time). Audio broadcasting of the interview as well as the interview script was published through CRI website at http://thai.cri.cn/247/2014/07/08/225s222796.htm and  http://thai.cri.cn/247/2014/07/08/225s222797.htm, the gist of which was translated for further broadcasting in other ASEAN languages in ASEAN countries.