跨越山海，共绘中美青年交流新篇章

------ 中美青年人文交流主题活动感悟

郭奕涵

华府青年 2024年12月20日 22:22

12月6日，我很幸运地受到邀请，与美国华府青年俱乐部云南交流访问团成员一起参加了由中国驻美国华盛顿大使馆举办的“中美青年人文交流主题活动”。这是一个令人振奋的活动。来自中美两国的青年代表、教育专家及各界友好人士齐聚一堂，共同探讨和展望中美青年交流的未来。

活动中，中国驻美国大使谢锋的致辞让我印象深刻。他提到了中国国家主席习近平去年在旧金山宣布的“5年5万”倡议，以及为此专门设立的“YES”项目。这一年来，已经有1.4万名美国青少年赴中国交流学习了，这一数字让我深感震撼。我正是这众多幸运儿中的一员，今年夏天我有幸参加了赴云南的交流活动，那段经历让我至今难以忘怀。

回想起在云南的日子，我与来自不同背景的云南同龄同学们共同学习、生活，深入了解了中国云南的文化、历史和风土人情。我们在云南麻栗坡县一小与他们共同种下友谊树，与他们一起朗诵“有朋友自远方来，不亦乐乎？”，与他们一起挥毫写下“跨越山海，不负云端之约”，与他们一起在操场欢度篝火晚会，载歌载舞。那些美好的记忆不仅丰富了我的人生经历，也让我对中美青年交流的意义有了更深刻的理解。通过交流，我们打破了隔阂，增进了了解，成为了朋友。这种跨文化的友谊无比珍贵，也是我们青少年共同为中美关系稳定、健康、可持续发展贡献自己力量的体现。

在当天的活动中，来宾们围绕“我所亲历的中美青年交流”和“ ‘5年5万’倡议与中美人文交流展望”两个专题展开了热烈的研讨。大家纷纷表达对中美青年交流的美好祝愿，期待中美教育交流合作能够继往开来，再出发，造福两国，惠及世界。这样的氛围让我感到无比温暖和鼓舞。

而最后的抽奖活动中，我竟然抽中了由中国国航赞助的明年回中国交流活动的往返机票，我更是激动不已。这对我来说不仅仅是一张机票，更是对我过去努力的肯定，以及未来继续参与中美青年交流的鼓励和期待。

这次活动让我更加坚定了自己的信念：作为新时代的青年，我们应该肩负起推动中美关系稳定、健康、可持续发展的重任，做树立正确认知的先行者、推进对话合作的践行者、共创美好未来的开拓者。让我们一起对中美交流合作说YES，对中美人民友好说YES，对中美青年美好未来说YES！

Flying Tigers, Family Heritage, and Cross-Cultural Adventures

By: Susanna Lee and Samuel Lee

Capital Youth Outreach Club

On Dec 6th, 2024, we were invited to attend a China-US Youth Exchange Event at the Chinese Embassy as representatives of Capital Youth Outreach Club.

In this event, we met many sons and daughters of the famous Flying Tiger pilots. We were so excited. Suddenly, the stories that were passed down to us from our parents, grandparents and great grandparents came to life vividly.  Our father was born in Shanghai, he has been to Kunming only twice in his life, but he’s never stopped mentioning Kunming, a mystical and divine place, and a city of family heritage.

Kunming was the base for “Flying Tigers”, a group of American soldiers and pilots helping the Chinese fight against the Japanese military during World War 2. At that time, our great grandma was a Christian pastor, establishing churches and schools. Since she spoke English well, many American officers and soldiers came to visit our great grandparents and their estates. So, they had a deep connection with the Flying Tigers. Even more surprisingly, the son of the executive director of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation (https://sinoamaviation.com/) was a graduate of Kunming’s #3 high school, or the “Kun Shan Zhong Xue”, which was the “En Guan School” founded by our great grandma!

We listened to the war stories of how the American pilots attacked the Japanese positions as if pictured in a war movie. Many pilots lost their lives in the fighting or by flying over the treacherous Himalaya Mountain, estimated over 2,500 American pilots and crew members were killed between 1941 to 1945 in China, a piece of history not well known to many people in the past, but now the bravery and the sacrifices of these American pilots are getting to known with greater appreciations by all Chinese.

Our great grandparents had some remarkable influences in Kunming. Our grandma taught many people English, including Zhu De, the supreme commander of the Chinese military, in the 1920s.  Our grandpa developed a private village to house the professors at the National Southwest Associated University to live, such as the famous writer, “Shen Chong Wen”.

Due to our deep roots in Yunnan, we joined the CYOC culture exchange program withMalipokids since it started and visited Yunnan in the past summer. We got to witness the beautiful places with our own eyes. We were surrounded by many different types of plants, fruits, and flowers. Each hill and meadow we passed had its own uniqueness. Yunnan is rich in many different ethnic minorities, there are a total of 25 ethnic minorities.  It was amazing to learn how each minority had its own cultural outfits and styles of dance. We also explored more varieties of food such as, “Guo Qiao Mi Xian” also known as, “Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles”. We learned that there was a specific order to eat it; you were to add the raw meat and quail eggs first, then the vegetables, the noodles were next, and lastly, any sauces or seasonings.We also tasted the local coffee at Kunming City. We remembered that the pure black coffee there was naturally way less bitter compared to the pure black coffee sold in the US.

We were mostly grateful for the people inMalipo. It’s a small town situated at the border of China and Vietnam. We have been sharing cultures with kids from Malipo Number One Elementary School using WeChat. It’s great to see these lovely young faces in person and experience the cultural activities with them. We particularly appreciated the deep care that Samuel received in Malipo. When we first arrived there, Samuel became sick. The people there were so warm, and they showed their hospitality to us. Samuel was well taken care of medically and fully recovered by the time we arrived in Kunming.

This youth exchange program was so meticulously well organized.It’s great to hear all the culture exchangestoriesfrom the panelists. We’d like to thank the embassy for initiating this wonderful event, and a deep appreciation to CYOC for giving us this opportunity and great experience.