[Armenia] Grigoryan Erik, Northwestern Polytechnical University

There is culture everywhere in China, and culture always tells stories about the nation. Some people understand China from language, some from food, and some from music... But I prefer Chinese ancient poetry. To me, Chinese poetry is like letters the ancients wrote to us. Although a letter has traveled through thousands of years, it still contains a lot of wisdom and truth.

Today, please join me and take a look at China in poetry!

Poems contain various tastes of folk life. I once read “Who knows that every grain of food on the plate is laborious?” What came to my mind was the hard work scene of working people in the fields, sweat dripping into the land. I wonder, today, in a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, how can everyone has enough food and clothing and lives a happy and beautiful life? The teacher told me that there was a wise old Chinese man named Yuan Longping. He cultivated “super rice” with his hands and measured the land with his feet, bringing golden harvests not only to China but to all mankind. “The fragrance of rice flowers and the sound of frogs tell of a good harvest.”

Here, I see a China where the people have enough food and clothing and live and work in peace and contentment.

Poems contain poets’ wanton expression of emotion. I once read, “The road to Shu (Sichuan) is as difficult as climbing to the sky!” It was like seeing the mountains rising from the ground and the winding and dangerous roads with my own eyes. I thought, how do people live in a place like this? But now, bridges and tunnels connect the land of Bashu and Sichuan, allowing local specialty products to “go out” and rich resources from outside to “bring in.” I was amazed by the “China Speed” and was even more moved by the efforts behind the “China Speed.”

Here, I see a people-oriented and rapidly developing China.

Majestic rivers and mountains in the poems. I once read “The lonely smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun sets over the long river.” I wanted to go there to appreciate the beauty of the sunset in the desert, but I was afraid that it would be deserted. But now, through returning farmland to forests and scientifically controlling desertification, China has created oases in the desert and built a beautiful home where human and nature can coexist harmoniously.

Here, I see a China where human and nature are one, green and harmonious.

Poems contain Chinese people’s infinite yearning for the future. I have read many ancient Chinese poems related to the “moon”, but my favorite one is “Everyone is full of joy and wants to fly, to go up to the sky, and to embrace the bright moon.” Throughout the ages, traveling through time and space, and the distance between heaven and earth cannot stop people from yearning for the unknown! The Chang’e lunar probe flew into the sky and the Moon Rabbit lunar rover landed on the moon. The exploration of generations of Chinese people has allowed these romantic mythological images to fly into space with the dreams of the ancients.