Chinese children's choir releases song to mark deepening China-France cultural exchanges

Children from the Li and Miao ethnic groups in south China's Hainan Province have recorded and released a song entitled "Sing Wuzhishan to France" to commemorate the year of 2024, which marks the China-France "Year of Culture and Tourism."

The song performed by a children's choir at Shuiman Center School has been played on CGTN French and many other channels.

It was composed by Liu Min, a music teacher at the school, and is inspired by a French song titled "If I Had a Chance to Go to China" that immediately went viral on the Internet after French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to China last year.

The song revolves around themes of friendly exchanges between the two countries, said Liu in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) before the choir's first visit to France for a nearly week-long cultural exchange from Friday to Wednesday.

"The Children's Choir of Shuiman Center School was established in August 2022. It is made up of students from the Li and Miao ethnic groups. The children are mostly in the age group of seven to 11 years old, from first grade to fifth grade. After our choir was founded, the children have never traveled outside of the province yet. This time, 18 of our students will go to France. Our choir is going to have an exchange with the French choir. This song expresses the children's wish for friendly relations between the two countries. I hope the relationship between China and France will become better and better," said Liu Min, music teacher of Shuiman Center School.

Many members of the children's choir expressed their excitement and expectations of the French tour, and expressed hopes to invite their French counterparts to China for this cultural exchange.

To make the song a better cultural bridge between China and France, Liu translated the Chinese lyrics into French and taught the children to sing the song in French.

"Our thought is that since we will go to France, we should then translate the song into French and sing it, which might resonate more," said Liu.

"It's really difficult to teach French, which has a lot of retroflex sounds. So we teach them how to read a specific phonetic symbol. In addition, we turn French into Pinyin and for some words, we turn them into Chinese characters. We use this method to teach the song, and the children learn it very quickly. Basically, they can learn it in two or three days. When they sing it, the French can understand it and the children can sing it clearly. Through this activity, I hope they can experience the world, know the world, and receive the world's wonders in their hearts and eyes," Liu added.

Chinese children's choir releases song to mark deepening China-France cultural exchanges

San Francisco is eager to promote cooperation in air travel, green transition and more areas with China, and is anticipating to welcome a pair of giant pandas from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, said San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

Last month, Breed led a delegation to China's Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai to deepen friendly cooperation between the U.S. city and China.

In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in San Francisco, Breed highlighted the outcomes of the trip, outlining potential areas for increased cooperation between the two sides.

"The technology and also the desire to have a more significant impact on the climate, the electric vehicles and the electric vehicle infrastructure," she said.

The mayor also emphasized that expanding flight options would make San Francisco more accessible, fueling tourism growth and its contribution to the local economy.

"It appears the airlines there were very much interested in adding more flights, and we know that San Francisco also has incentives for landing fee waivers and other things. So we're ready to go. But there are some, you know, real challenges with the department of transportation, and there are things that are way above my level. But we are being very aggressive about encouraging more flight options to San Francisco from China, not just because of the relationships of the people who live here, but because of the economic impacts," she said.

During Breed's visit to Beijing, an arrangement was reached under which two giant pandas will have a temporary home in San Francisco from next year.

On the last stop of her eight-day official trip, Breed also visited the giant panda sanctuary at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park.

Mayor Breed concluded by discussing the local community's excitement surrounding the arrival of the black-and-white bears.

"We are really hopeful and optimistic that we can actually receive the pandas, hopefully early next year and at the latest maybe sometime summer of 2025. We are super excited about welcoming them here to San Francisco," she said.

San Francisco eager to increase cooperation with China, welcome giant pandas: mayor