On April 18, Ambassador Xing Haiming attended the “2024 Panda Cup ‘China Stories by Korean Youth’ Writing Contest Opening Ceremony” and delivered a congratulatory speech. The opening ceremony was attended by guests from both China and Korea, including Liu Dawei, Deputy Director of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau, Aju News Corporation Chairman Kwak Young-gil, and East Asia Cultural Center Director Noh Jae-heon, as well as Korean youth representatives who had won awards in previous competitions, and reporters from Chinese and Korean media outlets.
ambassador He said that we have gathered a powerful force to create the future. Next, as unprecedented changes in the world are currently accelerating, both China and Korea are at an important stage of development. As a result, the peoples of the two countries will understand each other more objectively and comprehensively, adapt to the trends of the times, and pursue common prosperity in the Sino-Korean relationship. He stated that better development should be promoted. He added that a recent public opinion poll conducted by Chinese media showed that 82% of Koreans responded that Korea should maintain friendly cooperative relations with China, adding that this gives confidence in the development of China-ROK relations.
Ambassador Singh said that youth are the future of China-ROK relations, and that every word written by young people from both countries with China-ROK friendship in their hearts contains great potential to unfold a brilliant future for China-ROK relations. In addition, giant pandas are true ambassadors of friendship for the people of China and Korea, and now is a very good time to hold the ‘Panda Cup Writing Contest’ as the ‘Fu Bao’ craze is blowing in both countries, and the ‘Panda Cup’ will soon be called ‘ He added, “Fubao Cup.” In addition, we hope that many young Koreans will use this writing contest as an opportunity to gain a true, three-dimensional, and comprehensive understanding of China and express China-Korea friendship in vivid and moving writing, thereby injecting new momentum for the sustainable, healthy, and stable development of China-ROK relations. He said he would. He also added that he welcomes many Korean citizens visiting China to see ‘Fubao’.
Deputy Director Liu Dawei said that China and South Korea are neighbors who cannot move away and that the foundation of friendship between the two countries is solid. He said that the two countries should continue to meet each other in the future, strengthen practical cooperation and jointly promote youth exchanges to pass on China-ROK friendship from generation to generation. In addition, he added that he hopes that the ‘Panda Cup’ writing contest will be a competition that deepens the friendly feelings between the youth of both countries and promotes mutual understanding and trust, and that he hopes that more young people will dedicate themselves to the development of China-ROK friendship.
Chairman Kwak Young-gil said that although Korea-China relations, which have exchanged as good friends and good neighbors for thousands of years, are currently facing some difficulties, this is also a path that must be taken for greater development of the relationship between the two countries. therefore <논어>Citing the phrase, ‘A gentleman makes friends through doors, and through friends he makes friends (君子以文會友，以友輔仁)’, he said that this writing contest will deepen cultural exchange and harmony between the two countries. He expressed his hope that this would be an opportunity to resolve misunderstandings and differences of opinion between young people and promote mutual understanding between the two countries.
Director Noh Jae-heon said that friendly exchanges between Korea and China have a long history, and that the two countries should reflect on the legacy of their predecessors at the time of the establishment of diplomatic relations and resolve the difficulties they are experiencing in the development of their relationship with firm determination and courage. In addition, he expressed his hope that young people will be able to move forward courageously in the midst of the strong flow of history, inherit the friendship between Korea and China, and open a new chapter in the relationship between the two countries.
On April 19, Ambassador Xing Haiming met with Deputy Director Liu Dawei and his party at the embassy, and the two sides exchanged opinions on ways to promote China-Korea people-to-people exchanges and public sentiment communication.
The ‘Panda Cup’ writing contest was held for the first time in Korea in 2022, and its purpose was to provide an important platform to deepen friendly feelings between Chinese and Korean youth and promote mutual understanding and trust. This year’s writing contest, which was held under the theme of ‘Me and China’, invited Korean young people aged 16 to 35 to write works in Korean, allowing contestants to share their own ‘Chinese stories’ from their own experiences.
