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Consul General Zha Liyou visiting communities to Expand Communication & Friendship Between China & India
2022-05-18 23:14

“The relationship between our countries depends on citizens beingkind to each other and loving each other”. Strengthening mutual trust and friendship through the people-to-people friendly exchange is a pressing matter at the moment when mutual trust is at deficiency. Chinese Consul General in Kolkata, Mr. Zha Liyou, accompanied by his wife Zheng Huiqun and two Consulate officers, paid a deep-into-the-folk visit to Durgapur and Shantiniketan on May 13-14, 2022. Conveying the earnest willingness of the Chinese side to solidify Sino-Indian friendship, they visited different places, experiencing Indian social and cultural life, chatting, and interacting with tribal people. Wherever they visited, the atmosphere was warm and cordial, with the flower of friendship blooming.

   

   

On May 13, after 4 hours drive, CG Zha  reached Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, where they were warmly received by the teachers and students of the Cheena Bhavan. The two sides talked about the development of the college, exchanged ideas about ways of improving the preservation and utilization of the valuable books presented by late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in the late 1950s, and how Cheena Bhavan can play a bigger role in promoting cultural and educational exchanges between China and India. Zha watched students’ dancing and singing performances with great interest. Zha presented some Chinese books to the college and encouraged the students to study hard and become the major force in building up Sino-Indian friendship. Zha and his team then paid a visit to the family of a postgraduate student named Supradip, who had studied in China for some time, and received a heartening welcome from the whole family.

In the evening of May 13, in Durgapur, Zha attended the wedding celebration of Bakchi’s, a long-time friend of the consulate. Zha and his better half expressed their blessings to the newly-married couple in Chinese traditional way, that is, love and cherish each other for a lifelong time, and presented them with a special gift in Chinese traditional style. All the people present were deeply moved by Mr. and Mrs. Zha’s earnest blessing, which coated the wedding with a special colour of Sino-Indian friendship, and of the two ancient civilizations.

    

May 14 was a day with the full schedule. Under the guidance of Mr. Samrat Choudhury, mentor, and founder of BAUL foundation, who has been devoted to the preservation of Indian cultural heritage, Zha paid a visit to Bonkathi Temple and then Itonda Temple, where they were immersed in the charm of Indian religious culture, and felt the community's dedication to the preservation of cultural heritage. A small donation was made to each of the keepersof the temples to express the respect for Indian traditional culture from the Chinese Government and people.

Later on, Zha arrived at Amar Kutir to visit it's leather craft factory floor and the showroom of the society’s founder. Zha encouraged them to dig into Indian traditional craftsmanship for the well-preservation of cultural heritage, and expressed wishes regarding how Amar Kutir’s gift products might be sold to Chinese customers via streaming.

    

Zha’s team then came to the Santhal Museum, built and operated by the local tribal people. The team was briefed by the museum chief and watched the exhibition of pictures and tribal living utensils. Mrs. Zha sang a song of Tagore's “Brightness our brightness” (“Alo amr amr ogo”) along with a group of tribal children. The melody lingered around and got to the deep heart of the children. After visiting Diva homestay and tasting typical Bengali food Zha and his team enjoyed a short performance by a traditional BAUL singer and his band.

In the afternoon, Zha came to the tribal village of Domdoma, where Zha mingled with villagers and asked about their lives, and explained to them how Chinese eliminate poverty. With footballs gifted to the tribal girls, Zha kicked off a training match for them and presented shirts and flashlights to the players and head coach, and encouraged them to stick to their dreams and strive for success.

After briefly touring the well-known weekend market Khoyaai Haat Zha arrived at the popular coffee bar Amoly to interact with the Indian media friends. He said that both China and India have a splendid history of civilizations and share many similarities in their developmental dynamics. Today’s independent India and new China are carefully capable of building on our long history of cultural interaction and expanding experience sharing into areas such as governance, philosophy, poverty alleviation, education, protection of the disadvantaged groups, and construction of ecological civilization to forge stronger tie between our two countries and two peoples. Zha highlighted that its the responsibility of every Chinese diplomat to carry out well every bit of work so as to promote the healthy and steady development of bilateral relations guided by consensus reached by both the leaders. “China and India don't pose threat to each other but provide development opportunity to each other”, and in accordance with the proposals put forward by the Chinese State Councillor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit in March 2022.


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