NAIROBI, May 1 (Xinhua) -- With tears of joy, Miriam Achieng was carried shoulder high by a rapturous crowd to the podium when she was announced the overall winner at the national finals of the 25th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition in Kenya.Dressed in a sparkling green dress on Friday night, the geospatial engineering student from the University of Nairobi had earlier electrified the crowd with a powerful drumming performance themed around the courage of a female general.Achieng, also pursuing the Chinese language as a minor, won accolades from judges and spectators after delivering a speech in fluent Mandarin.It was my first time to participate in a (Chinese) Bridge competition, and my first time to be on any stage. It felt nice and exciting to find my new self. Sometimes it was overwhelming, but I was reassured by my strong support team of teachers and friends, Achieng said.Achieng said that being declared the overall winner of this year's Chinese language proficiency contest has inspired her to champion the Kenya-China relationship to a new level.Held at a packed auditorium in the University of Nairobi's Taifa Hall, the 25th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition's national finals for college students in Kenya was characterized by elegance, pomp, and adulation.Twenty participants shortlisted for the finals put their best foot forward during the competition, which included speech and cultural performances, such as a cappella music, dance, martial arts, and drumming.Alice Usla Wanjala, a microbiology and biotechnology student at the University of Nairobi, wowed the audience with her rhythmic moves while performing a lion dance.Wanjala defied earlier nervousness to deliver a speech in fluent Mandarin, highlighting how language creates bridges of friendship and how it can bring diverse cultures together for a common cause.We should use language to bring Kenyan and Chinese communities together, said Wanjala, who won in the Outstanding Talent ...

BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- On a rooftop in Shenzhen, the tech hub in south China's Guangdong Province, 24-year-old Xue Haoran watched as drones carrying packages took off one after another, weaving through the city skyline along invisible threads.He is the person behind those routes. Xue is a drone route planner at SF Express, one of China's largest delivery companies. He spends his days walking the streets with surveying equipment, mapping terrain and plotting flight paths for low-altitude logistics.Unlike traditional logistics, we have to pay much closer attention to air traffic control requirements, said Xue, as he found himself in the midst of a much larger shift in China.From autonomous drones to embodied artificial intelligence (AI), new technologies are creating entirely new occupations for the world's largest labor market.KALEIDOSCOPE OF OPPORTUNITIESAccording to an analysis of spring recruitment data released by governments and organizations, job postings in robotics and advanced materials in China rose by over 30 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, while those in optoelectronics and AI-related industries increased by nearly 20 percent.For many young Chinese people, these emerging opportunities are like a magnet. Qu Hongtao, a humanoid robot data collector in Beijing, is one such person who has been attracted to them.When I see a robot complete a task using the data I collected, the sense of achievement is indescribable. I feel like taking part in an experiment about the future, he said, having just turned his part-time engagement into a serious career.He finds it a very interesting form of creative work to translate abstract algorithmic requirements to concrete data-collection movements, which, for him, requires a strong capacity for empathy -- not only toward humans, but also toward robots.Jade Wu, a millennial AIGC artist, believes that amid the wave of technological innovation, ambitious Chinese youth with vision and creativity are ...