By Wang Fengjuan
On October 30, Chong Yuki, a Singaporean junior majoring in world history at Yuanpei College of Peking University, posted several pictures of the 11th China-ASEAN Youth Camp and 4th China-ASEAN Youth Summit (CAYS) for her WeChat friends with the caption: “We made it CAYS2019! The workload over months of preparation has not been easy—I am exhausted but have no regrets. I’ve enjoyed the success of the week-long event alongside the delegates.”
“I’ve been involved with CAYSsince I arrived at my Chinese university,” revealed Chong. “ I first attended the mock summit as a youth delegate to share my views on regional development. Later, I was appointed chair of the academic research department responsible for agenda setting, and then deputy secretary-general responsible for design and delegate liaison. I’ve made steady progress alongside CAYS.” She is pleased to have witnessed the innovative development of CAYS into an activity brand attracting overseas students to Beijing.
“This year’s event has been larger in scale and more brimming with content, which posed challenges for the organizing committee,” admitted Chong. “But we stayed true to our original aspirations to develop CAYS into a platform for young students to exchange views on the development of China and ASEAN.” Along with academic discussions and mock summit, this year’s event added cultural exchange elements. Aiming for activities to be more meaningful and fruitful, the organizing committee introduced new departments of design and delegate liaison.
The logo of CAYS was redesigned and printed on tailormade eco-friendly handbags and handbooks, which impressed the delegates right from the getgo. The red color represents China, while the blue represents the vast ocean that connects the 10 ASEAN countries with China. The entire design resembles a torch shedding light on the road of China-ASEAN common development. It also hearkens to an open palm supporting 10 ears of rice, symbolizing the close community of China and 10 ASEAN countries.
“The design director suggested we revamp the logo,” recalled Chong, “The organizing committee offered support in terms of ideas.” The redesign was performed by a team led by Zhou Yikang, a communications major at Beijing Normal University. Their new design is unique and inspiring, with flavors of inclusiveness in diversity.
The students of the delegate liaison department were inexperienced at communicating with overseas delegates at first. They faced unprecedented challenges. Singaporean student Debbie Chew Yannie was responsible for recruiting overseas delegates while Ren Ziyang, a student of law at Yuanpei College, was responsible for recruiting Chinese delegates.
“We recruited a total of 74 Chinese delegates and 70 ASEAN delegates, 31 of whom came from ASEAN countries for the event,” explained Chong, “We encountered numerous problems in terms of overseas recruitment and explored solutions for those problems. Those victories were some of our greatest achievements.”
For example, they responded to many inquiries every day while providing overseas delegates with various materials to support visa application from different countries.
“So many problems emerged,” Chong illustrated. “One example was cross-border transfer of registration fees, which we ultimately solved.”
China Report ASEAN 