This year is the 10th anniversary of the concept of “A human community with a shared future”, and also the 10th anniversary of the“Belt and Road Initiative”. Over the past 10 years, the circle of friends for the construction of “the Belt and Road” has become wider and wider, providing a practical platform for building “A human community with a shared future”. The“Belt and Road Initiative” has benefited the people of the countries where it is being built and has brought them closer to each other. With 1,960 Chinese and foreign students, the International Business School (IBS) of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) held the sixth "Understanding China" seminar in Chendu Hall on the afternoon of December 6, 2023, in order to better promote the people-to-people communication and contribute to the construction of “A human community with a shared future”. Li Chunli, Chairman of the International Business School Committee, Li Yike, Director of the Student Affairs Office, Bai Nan, Secretary of the General Branch of the Graduate Student Union, Zou Kang, supervisor of International Student Affairs, and Su Chengyuan, supervisor of the International Student Office, were present at the event, which was attended by more than 60 Chinese and foreign students.

Four Chinese graduate students from IBS, Yudi Sang, Jingle Fu, Zengyun Shi and Jianing Chen, started the event with their speeches. Sang Yudi lectured on "China's Sharing Economy From My Perspective", showing the history of economic and trade exchanges between China and foreign countries spanning thousands of years from the ancient Silk Road to the Belt and Road; Fu Jingle lectured on "Interpretation of China's Digital Economy from Mobile Payment and E-commerce Platforms", introducing the different applications of mobile payment in China and Europe with her personal experience, showing the convenience of mobile payment in China; Shi Zengyun lectured on "Showing the Charm of Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World", taking traditional Chinese medicine as the theme, showing foreign students the charm of traditional Chinese medicine, and showing foreigners how to use traditional Chinese medicine in China. Shi Zengyun lectured on "Showing the Charm of Chinese Medicine to the World", in which she explained to foreign students the connotation and charm of look, listen, question and feel the pulse -- four ways of diagnosis with the theme of traditional Chinese medicine; and Chen Jianing lectured on "The Cultural Implications of the Giant Panda", which introduced the different images of pandas as the national treasures in the context of Chinese and foreign culture.

For the first time, two international students also gave speeches and shared their experiences in this seminar. Huang Shufang from Thailand compared the actions of China and Thailand in education, so as to show the cultural soft power embodied in China's education and the important influence of Chinese culture on the world; Luo Si from Russia spoke fluently in Chinese, citing the sharing economy, high-speed rail transportation and other high-tech in China after coming to China, and praised China's vigorous development of high-tech to improve the living standard of its people.

Through the Chinese and foreign students' joint telling of Chinese stories and spreading of Chinese voices, the international students were able to deeply understand the development of China, and strengthened their identification with Chinese society and culture.

At the end of the presentation session, Chengyuan Su commented on the six speakers. In the subsequent Q&A session, the student audience actively interacted with the speakers on topics of their interest.

At the end of the session, Li Chunli awarded all the speakers with certificates and took a group photo, encouraging the students to continue to give full play to their linguistic talents and use foreign languages as a bridge to tell the world the colorful stories of China.

IBS "Understanding China" series of speech activities aim at encouraging students to use foreign languages to tell China's story, spread China's voice in the form of thematic speeches, and show the real, multi-dimensional and concrete image of China. The lecture shows the confidence and wisdom of young people in IBS.BFSU in the context of the new era, and also provides a big platform and new opportunities for foreign students to learn about China's culture, economy and social development.