Yunnan Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

On December 26, 2025, the "Deepening Friendship and Embracing the New Year" celebration for Chinese and foreign youth in Yunnan Province was successfully held in Kunming. This event was organized by the Yunnan Provincial Committee for the Care of the Next Generation, with the cooperation of the Provincial Department of Education, the Provincial Youth League, and the Provincial Foreign Friends Association. The event was sponsored by Yunnan Normal University and Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and was attended by more than 100 Chinese and foreign teachers and students from universities such as Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, as well as officials from the总 consulates in Kunming. The participants came together to discuss deep friendships and to welcome the New Year of 2026.

Chinese and foreign youth have visited the Yunnan Baiyao Group and Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in turn, and had a direct experience of Yunnan's development strength and cultural charm in the walking experience. At the Yunnan Baiyao Group, the innovative integration of traditional Chinese medicine and modern technology has attracted attention. The modern production line and the exhibition hall of characteristic products have amazed the students, and they truly feel the vigorous vitality of China's innovative development. At Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, students participated in the experience projects such as moxibustion, massage, and making traditional Chinese medicine sachets, and visited the Yunnan Provincial Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ethnic Medicine, which integrates the medical resources of 25 ethnic minorities.

During the exchange meeting, Zhang Baiyu, director of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Work Committee for the Care of the Next Generation, pointed out that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has pointed out the direction for the cultural exchange between Chinese and foreign youth in the new era. The provincial work committee attaches great importance to the cultural exchange and personnel exchanges between Chinese and foreign youth, and has created a series of distinctive activities with the joint efforts of all parties. He emphasized that young people are the cornerstone of people-to-people exchanges and the vanguard of the community of human destiny. He hopes that Chinese and foreign youth will take this activity as a new starting point, open their hearts, speak their minds, share the cultural stories and voices of their own countries with each other, and bring back what they have seen, heard, thought and felt in Yunnan to their own countries, so that more people can understand a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive China, and an open, inclusive and dynamic Yunnan.

Yu Jie, vice president of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Pawiwan, Consul General of Thailand in Kunming, and Liu Cangshan, Director of the Standing Committee of the Working Committee of the Education Department of Yunnan Province, delivered speeches and urged the youth to strive to be "active communicators, in-depth learners, and sowers of friendship". Students from Myanmar and Laos studying at Yunnan Normal University, and Chinese students from Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, gave separate speeches, sharing the common wisdom of "harmonious coexistence between man and nature" in different civilizations, and sharing stories of mutual learning and exchange with youth from neighboring countries.

Wang Congwen, a first-level inspector of the Provincial Party Committee's Department of Cadre Cadre Work, the deputy director and secretary general of the Provincial Committee for the Care of Retired Cadres, and Tao Xiantao, the vice president of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, attended the meeting. Li Lianbin, the deputy director of the Provincial Committee for the Care of Retired Cadres, presided over the discussion.

At the scene, a ceremony for the distribution of "International Youth Exchange Activity Participation Certificates" was held. Zhang Bai Ru, director of the Provincial Committee for the Care of the Young and Children, Yuan Li Juan, deputy director of the Provincial Organization Department of the Party Committee and director of the Provincial Party School for the Care of Retired Cadres, Wang Zhen Zhen, deputy secretary of the Provincial Youth League Committee, and Lv Zhi Xiong, deputy director of the Secretariat of the Provincial Education Committee for the Care of the Young and Children, presented the International Youth Exchange Activity Participation Certificates to the representatives of the foreign students participating in the event, including students from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries. A certificate not only affirms the youth exchange practice but also carries the entrustment of friendship inheritance and the beautiful expectations for the future.

That evening, theReunion晚 party was held at the physical education stadium of Yunnan Normal University, where about 5,000 Chinese and foreign youth gathered to celebrate the New Year together. The special programs such as characteristic songs and dances, recitations, and speeches were presented in turn, which not only highlighted the profound cultural heritage of China but also integrated the elements of foreign customs, and concentrated on the unique charm of multiculturalism. Chinese and foreign youth performed on the same stage and interacted tacitly. In the blending of music and dance, they conveyed their common yearning for a better future. Although they had different languages and cultures, the friendship across nationalities and the expectation for the New Year were deeply integrated in the laughter, which made the youth who were far away from home feel the warmth of "home" and became a vivid carrier of cultural exchange between Chinese and foreign youth.

This event is not only a cultural feast to welcome the New Year with joy by the youth of China and foreign countries, but also an important measure for Yunnan to deepen cross-border youth exchanges and serve the construction of a radiation center facing South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the next step, we will continue to expand the channels for exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign youth, enrich the forms of exchanges, expand the breadth and depth of exchanges, innovate the cooperation mechanism, keep the tree of friendship evergreen in the land of Yunling, and inject lasting youthful vitality into the construction of a community of shared future for mankind.