Source: China News Network
SEOUL, May 17 (Xinhua) -- In order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, on the 14th local time, the final and award ceremony of the "China-Korea Youth Exchange Song Contest" co-sponsored by the Chinese Embassy in South Korea and the Korea-China Economic, Cultural and Educational Association was successfully held in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Chinese Ambassador to the ROK Xing Haiming attended and delivered a speech online.
The "China-South Korea Youth Exchange Song Contest" aims to strengthen the communication between young people in China and South Korea and enhance friendly feelings by allowing young music lovers of China and South Korea to use each other's national languages and sing each other's national songs, and has received strong support and active participation from young people of the two countries, attracting the great attention of the Korean people and Chinese compatriots in Korea, with a total of more than 400 people going to the scene to watch the finals, and the event was also broadcast live in real time through Youku, Douyin, YouTube and other video platforms.
Preliminary selection for the event is conducted online. After careful selection by the organizing committee, a total of 15 groups of players entered the final. At the final scene, eight groups of Chinese players sang songs such as "Thinking of You" and "Superstar", and seven groups of Korean players also performed songs familiar to Chinese audiences such as "Cultivating Love", "Finally Waiting for You" and "Love Must Be", with Chinese, and the atmosphere was warm.
Xing Haiming said in his speech that music is the common language of mankind. In the thousands of years of friendly exchanges, the chinese and ROK peoples have met friends and exchanged affection with songs, condensing a profound friendship. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea and the end of the "China-ROK Year of Cultural Exchanges", and the development of China-ROK relations is facing new opportunities. I hope that all young friends will give full play to their role as cultural bridges and messengers of friendship between China and the ROK, sing a new movement of friendly exchanges between the two peoples, and play a positive role in enhancing the friendly feelings of the two peoples.
Shin Kyung-sook, president of the Korea-China Economic, Cultural and Educational Association, said in an interview with China News Network that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China, and hopes to promote exchanges between young people and the people of the two countries through this Korean-Chinese youth exchange song contest.
Wu Zaiya from South Korea sang Zhang Liangying's song "Finally Waiting for You" at the event. She told reporters that because she had always been interested in Chinese culture, she took Chinese in middle school and hoped to study at a Chinese university in the future.
Another Chinese contestant currently studying for a doctorate in vocal music at Hanyang University in South Korea also said in an interview that for him who is already studying music, every time he appears on the stage, it is both an exercise and an opportunity. However, unlike the music competitions he has participated in in the past, Chinese and Korean youth sing each other's national songs in each other's national languages, which is a kind of cultural exchange through music, which helps to promote emotional communication between Chinese and Korean youth.
On the same day, fifteen participating teams won awards such as the Korea-China Economic, Cultural and Educational Association Award and the Korea Academy of Arts Award. After the award ceremony, all the participants sang "Friends" together, looking forward to a better future for China-South Korea friendship.