On July 18, in order to deepen the educational exchanges between Shanghai and various international sister cities and enhance the friendship and understanding among young people from all over the world, the “2022 Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp”, organized by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, undertaken by Education Bureau of Yangpu District and co-organized by Yangpu Education International Exchange Service Center and International Education Association Shanghai, was kicked off in a global live-streaming mode on several online platforms, which makes“connecting participants from various places online”to“ renew friendship among sister cities”a reality under the COVID-19 new normal. Chen Qun, Deputy Mayor of Shanghai Municipal People's Government, attended the event and announced the kickoff of the Camp.
Chen Qun, Deputy Mayor of Shanghai Municipal People's Government, attended the event and announced the kickoff of the Camp.
Huang Yongping, Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Municipal People's Government, Xie Jiangang, Secretary of the CPC Yangpu District Committee, Xue Kan, Deputy Party Secretary of the CPC Yangpu District Committee and Mayor of Yangpu District, Li Yongzhi, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Liu Guangyong, Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, Wang Hao, Deputy Mayor of Yangpu District, and Jiang Haishan, President of International Education Association Shanghai etc attended the kick-off ceremony.
Chinese and foreign guests attended the online launching ceremony and wished the event a complete success
The officials of consulates general and office representatives in Shanghai of 11 countries, including Finland, Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, as well as representatives of relevant education bureaus, middle school principals, teachers and volunteer students were also invited to join 144 students from 17 sister cities of 16 countries in kicking off the grand event for exchanges among youths from international sister cities online.
At the kickoff ceremony, Li Yongzhi, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Wang Hao, Deputy Mayor of Yangpu District, delivered speeches on behalf of the organizer and the undertaker respectively.
Li Yongzhi, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission delivered speech
Li Yongzhi indicated that Shanghai is a city with a spirit of inclusiveness, where Chinese and Western cultures collide and mingle, and has become a cultural hub connecting China and the world for more than 100 years. He expressed his hope that young people from international sister cities could experience the “openness, innovation and tolerance”of Shanghai, gain friendship and understanding, and work together to become the bearers of friendship and builders of friendly cooperation among countries.
Wang Hao, Deputy Mayor of Yangpu District delivered speech
Wang Hao suggested that Yangpu District, as the undertaker of the event, should stand higher with a broader vision and see the bigger picture in the opening up to the outside world, especially through online summer camp that pursues innovative forms, innovative thinking and innovative means, so as to open up new prospects for international exchanges and cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic, tell the story of Shanghai and spread the voice of China well and show the real, three-dimensional, comprehensive China.
Ha Yunsu, Busan Governor of Education delivered speech
Ha Yunsu, Busan Governor of Education noted that “Although this year’s youth camp will be held online due to COVID-19, I have no doubt that it will helps students to expand a world-view, build global competency skills, establish friendship, and have fun and memorable experience throughout the forum.”
Gabriel Chartier, Director of Indo-Pacific, Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie of Québec, Canada delivered speech
Gabriel Chartier, Director of Indo-Pacific, Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie of Québec, Canada, pointed out that “Since the launch of the first camp in 2009, more than 60 students and teachers from several middle schools in Quebec have been lucky enough to be invited to participate in the camps, where they made friends from China and all over the world. We will spare no effort to promote the cooperation agreement between Quebec and Shanghai and wish the event a great success!”
Nadia Fathy, Deputy Minister of Education of Alexandria Province, Egypt delivered speech
Nadia Fathy, Deputy Minister of Education of Alexandria Province, Egypt, said in his speech,“Today, all countries communicate through the Internet and our students have much to gain by exchanging with other countries, they can share cultures and strengthen solidarity. 'Communication, cooperation, friendship and understanding' can be achieved through exchanges with the great country of China.”
Dr. Natalia Mikhailova, Chief Specialist of Department of Teacher Certification and Vocational Training of Committeeon Education of St. Petersburg, Russia delivered speech
Dr. Natalia Mikhailova, Chief Specialist of Department of Teacher Certification and Vocational Training of Committeeon Education of St. Petersburg, Russia, indicated that“Chinese is very popular in our city. In St. Petersburg, more than 1,300 people study Chinese as their first foreign language and more than 2,500 people study Chinese as their second foreign language. Although we know that learning Chinese is not easy, our students have achieved great success in their studies."
Since 2009, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission has organized the “Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp” every year, aiming to respond to the “Belt and Road” Initiative, introduce traditional Chinese culture, showcase Shanghai as a cosmopolitan city, further promote exchanges between youths from Shanghai and its international sister cities, strengthen international understanding education and enhance students' core qualities.
Suzhou Ping Tan- Butterflies in love with flowers, performed by Ping Tan Club of Shanghai Shidong Middle School
Since 2009, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission has organized the “Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp” every year, aiming to respond to the “Belt and Road” Initiative, introduce traditional Chinese culture, showcase Shanghai as a cosmopolitan city, further promote exchanges between youths from Shanghai and its international sister cities, strengthen international understanding education and enhance students' core qualities.
Thai Dance- Welcome to Chiang Mai, performed by Chiang Mai camp members
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “2021 Shanghai International Sister Cities Youth Camp” was held online for the first time. Empowered by the network technology, more sister cities and regions around the world were able to participate in the event, which greatly enhanced the spillover effect of sister city exchanges. The 2021 Camp is also the the first practical exploration of the overall development of international educational exchanges in different districts in Shanghai through the model of “one district as the undertaker, multiple districts as coordinated partners”.
Dance- Teenagers, performed by Dance Club of No.1 Affiliated Middle School of Tongji University
This year, based on the experience of last year's Camp activities, the project design team took into consideration the project objectives and the characteristics of online communication, consolidated and optimized the course and communication resources, and comprehensively redesigned and upgraded the courses and activities through multiple scenes according to high standards. From optimizing the course content, beautifying the teaching environment, drawing beautiful posters, to making material lists, rehearsing and debugging for many rounds, and shooting course videos, relevant workers made preparations nonstop for 365 days and created the platform resource base for the Camp integrating more than 200 sessions of courses, with a total video length of more than 10,000 minutes and more than 20,000 original photography pictures. By relying on the construction of the platform resource library for the Camp, the organizer has improved the digital platform of the Camp that integrates video, audio, graphics and text, built the“reservoir” of exchanges between Chinese and foreign youths, createdintuitive, vivid, interesting and enjoyable content of the Camp and provided hardcore data support for telling the story of Shanghai and spreading Chinese culture well.
Chorus of participants from all countries- You Raise Me Up
The Camp's online platform will showcase Shanghai's humanistic characteristics, traditional Chinese culture, Chinese language learning, exchange forumsand live broadcasts and interactions etc, creating a combination of multi-section and sequential courses for the campers. The “Traditional Chinese Culture Experience”course series, such as Chinese tea culture, paper-cutting culture and art and sports culture, will allow campers to participate and experience first-hand, make cultural works, compare these cultures with corresponding cultures in their home countries, and actively exchange with each other the development and changes of different cultures in different countries and the impacts on contemporary life and people's perceptions. The “Chinese Language and Shanghai Dialect ”course series is designed to expand the scope of Chinese language communication, improve the campers' knowledge and grasp of daily communication terms in Chinese society, and enhance their cultural communication skills, The “Virtual Tour”course series, including virtual tour of Shanghai, virtual tour of universities in Shanghai and families in Shanghai etc, aims to deepen campers' knowledge and understanding of Shanghai's humanistic characteristics and the development of contemporary Chinese society, and enables campers to conduct in-depth research, refer to materials and improve their knowledge in related fields.
In order to promote smooth online communication and strengthen friendship, the Camp has adopted the model of“one-to-one” pairing, in which middle school student volunteers in Shanghai are paired with campers from sister cities to participate in the courses, exchange ideas and learn from each other. 160 middle school student volunteers from nearly 40 schools in 10 districts in Shanghai will serve 144 youths from 17 sister cities in 16 countries, including Espoo of Finland, Antwerp of Belgium, Barcelona of Spain, Rotterdam of the Netherlands, Cork of Ireland, St. Petersburg of Russia, Tashkent of Uzbekistan, Montreal of Quebec, Canada, Jalisco of Mexico, KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa, Alexandria of Egypt, Yokohama of Japan, Nagasaki of Japan, Busan of South Korea, Chiang Mai of Thailand, Jakarta of Indonesia and Queensland of Australia. By participating in various online activities around the clock and overcoming the time differences, they will be able to complete the learning and exchanges together and communicate ideas, emotions and stay in touch in the long term. At the same time, the Camp has fully researched, explored and cultivated the volunteers' interests and strengths, organizational and communication skills, and has set up the team of student directors, the team of student journalists, the team of student moderators and the information technology team to ensure the smooth and orderly implementation of the Camp's activities.
During the 2 weeks of the Camp, the online platform courses will be live-streamed, and the campers and volunteers will learn Chinese language, taste delicious food and make friends online, and will also complete rich and interesting works offline, enjoy the fun of sharing from time to time, learn about the profound Chinese culture, experience the speed of ever-changing Shanghai, and feel the vigor and vitality of the thriving of contemporary China.
