The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in Beijing on September 3 and 4. As an important warm-up event to the summit, “My Africa stories,” a contest of online works, was launched in January.

Altogether, over 1,000 contributions were made, covering a wide range of topics on China-Africa cooperation. Each of the works embodied the passion for a China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and demonstrated the commitment to building a community with a shared future between the Chinese people and African people. These works have attracted 900,000 hits on the internet, and nearly 250,000 people voted on them.

In recent years, the Confucius Institutes' development has been sharp and they have provided people all over the world with resources to learn about the Chinese language and culture. By the end of 2017, 525 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 Confucius Classrooms were established in 146 countries and regions around the world. Today’s leading teacher is Huang Shuai, who is a volunteer teacher in a Confucius Institute at Cairo University.

For the first few months in this unfamiliar environment, he also felt lonely and tired, but the students' enthusiasm in the different aspects of China aroused his sense of responsibility. He gradually enjoyed teaching Chinese and supporting his students. In his spare time, he leads the students in a variety of organized activities, like sketch contests and a film exhibition.

For every volunteer teacher at a Confucius Institute, the experience is unforgettable. They have become a platform for cultural exchanges between China and the world as well as a bridge reinforcing friendship and cooperation between China and the rest of the world, as Huang Shuai said, "A fond memory shall always be kept deep in my heart.”

The event was co-hosted by the secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC and China Radio International (CRI).

（Video by Huang Shuai）