Zhejiang Gongshang University's month-long cultural festival helps boost international cultural exchanges amid COVID-19 pandemic

BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Starting from early June and expected to last for a month, the third international cultural festival held online by Zhejiang Gongshang University (ZJSU), a business school in east China's Zhejiang Province, has helped boost the international cultural exchanges between students at home and abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Themed on "Oceans Apart, Hearts Connected", the event includes five sections of "speaking", "exhibition", "reciting", "learning" and "show", covering five themes of "anti-epidemic story telling", "colorful culture show", "Chinese classic recitation", "international youth learning" and "e-commerce live show".

Since May 2018 when the first international cultural festival held by ZJSU kicked off, the annual event has been held for thee times so far. Each contains colorful activities to help international students know about the development and progress of China, and improve the cultural experience and exchanges between students home and abroad.

As an international university committed to deepening international cooperation in education, apart from holding such events, ZJSU has also established exchanges and cooperation with more than 100 overseas universities and research institutions.

For instance, it has teamed up with the University of Sussex of the UK, the birthplace of artificial intelligence (AI), to set up China's first Chinese-foreign cooperative school for AI.

Besides, by joining hands with Sharjah Institute of Heritage of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the UAE-China cultural exchange center of ZJSU has been established to actively serve the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The university has made great strides in the education of international students in China.

By the end of 2019, its total number of international students reached 2,213, and students from the Belt and Road countries accounted for 65.9 percent of the total.

The university also teams up with enterprises and public institutions to provide opportunities for the students to gain practical experience. (Edited by Gu Shanshan with Xinhua Silk Road, gushanshan.1987@163.com)