Hand in Hand for Future: Children’s Day 2024 Activities Open for ASEAN and Chinese Teenagers

Source:ASEAN-China Centre Convert Chinese

On 10 June 2024, the ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), in collaboration with the China National Children’s Center (CNCC), hosted “ASEAN-China Children’s Day 2024: Hand in Hand for Future”. Representatives from the 10 embassies of ASEAN Member States (AMS) in China and more than 70 children from AMS and China participated in the event.

Secretary General Shi Zhongjun presided over the opening ceremony at the ACC. In his remarks, he emphasized that AMS and China are historically, geographically and culturally connected. Held in 2024 ASEAN-China Year of People-to-people Exchanges (ACYPPE), the “ASEAN-China Children’s Day 2024: Hand in Hand for Future”, will sow the seeds of friendship and understanding in the hearts of children from different countries, enabling the children to make new friends, enhancing their understanding and love for each other’s culture, and leaving them the best childhood memories and envisions for a brighter future.

Deputy Chief of Mission Saw Sandy Zaw of the Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Beijing and Director Yu Dongyun of the International Exchange and Cooperation Center of CNCC stressed that children are valuable assets of every nation and under the framework of ACYPPE, children, teenagers, youth communities and related groups from AMS and China are expected to further interact and communicate closely with each other in the purpose of enhancing mutual trust and understanding and deepening traditional friendship among ASEAN and Chinese peoples.

In the cultural presentation session, the children enjoyed traditional Chinese art performances such as excerpt from Peking Opera “Hong Niang: A Letter”, Chinese martial arts “the Light of Kungfu”, western Beijing shadow puppet show “Chang’e Flying to the Moon”, a chorus “Little Pool” and other fusion performances of ancient Chinese poems with new tunes to appreciate the charm of the Chinese civilization. Children from ASEAN countries, including Luu Phuong Linhl from Vietnam and Win Pa Waddy Htut from Myanmar, demonstrated the unique cultures of AMS through live narrations. And later the chorus of the classic folk song “Jasmine Flower” from ASEAN and Chinese children brought the cultural presentation session to a climax. During the interactive game session, all the children from AMS and China, under the guidance of the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage from Beijing, learned to make and control shadow puppets behind the screen, and sang shadow puppet songs with traditional dancing, which offered them a great opportunity to feel the charm of this unique artistic tradition.  

In the afternoon, the children were invited to the Palace Museum to explore the wisdom and beauty of ancient Chinese traditional architecture. The workshop was designed for the children to see the magnificent architecture with their own eyes and to build a model of mortise and tenon structure with their own hands.

The “ASEAN-China Children’s Day 2024: Hand in Hand for Future” event has been well covered by a number of AMS and Chinese media, including CCTV News Channel, Indonesia’s Antara State News Agency, Vietnam People’s Newspaper, Guangming Daily, China Tourism Newspaper and China.com, as shown through the web-links as follows: 

CCTV Evening News:

https://tv.cctv.com/2024/06/10/VIDEdEOQPPCkFQFUEjr7GRD0240610.shtml?spm=C31267.PvNPVPq0jA22.EhdUNGSvFP7C.9

CCTV Morning News:

https://tv.cctv.com/2024/06/11/VIDEmR45GgNV4xSy1wuXuKGH240611.shtml?spm=C45404.PlcSaTuIQb0E.ENSvHePEGND5.131

Guangming Daily:

https://app.gmdaily.cn/as/opened/n/1b64fbabad6d466bbeb185d699ccfdc2

China Tourism Newspaper:

https://app.ctnews.com.cn/detailArticle/24224128_18896_zglyxw.html?app=1&relPicRatio=1&source=1

Indonesia’s Antara State News Agency:

https://m.antaranews.com/berita/4146531/perwakilan-anak-indonesia-kenalkan-batik-di-asean-china-center

Vietnamese Newspaper Nhan Dan:

https://nhandan.vn/giao-luu-thieu-nhi-asean-trung-quoc-tai-bac-kinh-post813662.html