Arba Minch University/AMU/ along with Chinese Embassy, Ethiopia, held a Chinese Culture Day event that gathered together Chinese community from different backgrounds to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of China at Main campus on March 21st, 2025. The event typically involved demonstrations of Chinese cultural events including book display and donation, calligraphy, paper-cutting, Chinese tea tasting, an offline DEEPSEEK AI innovative technology experience sharing, and courtesy promotional gifting to AMU Staff and students. Click here to see more photos.
Abdella Kemal (PhD, Ing.), AMU President, welcoming the guests and wishing a colorful Chinese Culture Day Celebration, noted that it is a great pleasure and honor for AMU to jointly host such an important event with Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia and AMU. Celebrating the Chinese Culture Day in this special occasion is a powerful reminder of the beauty and significance of cultural exchange and collaboration between nations, he said. The President informed the audience that AMU wants to strengthen collaborations with the Chinese Embassy, academic and research institutions; in this regard, the collaborations should be lined with our broader vision of nurturing global understanding and fostering mutual respect among cultures.
Mr. Tilahun Kebede, the president of South Ethiopia Regional State, expressing his happiness on being part of the event spoke that as a new regional state we have multisectors including universities and different institutions which want to collaborate to work together with Chinese Embassy, Ethiopia, and other institutions in different areas especially in human capacity building. Arba Minch University is the pioneering among the regional universities and the collaborations which started will positively impact the surrounding community and foster similar collaborations with other academic, research and governmental administrative institutions, Mr. Tilahun hoped.
Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Chen Hai, on the occasion said, China's bilateral relationship with Ethiopia is one of most prioritized in Africa and China believes Ethiopia is particularly significant in peace and security within east Africa. Ethiopia-Chinese relationship is unique in many ways; first, Ethiopia’s traditional relationships with the industrialized nations are North to South whereas its relationship with China is South to South which allows a two-way approach which is mutual, second, China’s economic relationship with Ethiopia is in line with China’s policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of nations and third, such relations are bilateral with the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) serving as setting for engagement in areas related to economic, diplomatic, and social agendas, he explained. This event is the very first time where Chinese culture and technology know how to be learned and exchanged in local state city and today’s event is a part of serious of celebrations which will help to attract Chinese tourists to South Ethiopia Regional State, culturally and economically rich areas, and boost national economic development, Mr. Chen said. Besides the cultural and technological event, the Embassy held three medical services to Arba Minch hospital and reached an agreement to start collaboration to work together on various aspects such as education, medical care and the likes with the regional state, the ambassador remarked
Prof. Lili Gao, director of Confucius Institute at Addis Ababa University and the organizer of the event from China side, thanked AMU officials for their dedication and support to co-host the event in such a colorful way. Prof. Lili, continuing her remarks, said, China and Ethiopia are good friends and have strong bilateral relationships; under this long bilateral relationship, strengthening cultural exchange is very important. The aim of this event is to introduce more about China, Chinese culture, language and technology to AMU students, staffs and university community under the guidance of China Embassy, noted.
AMU Academic, Internationalization and Collaboration Coordinator Adanech Zemede (PhD), remarked our office works on increasing international engagements and collaborations by facilitating mutual agreements with others. This event enabled our community to gain a lot from Chinese culture and technology especially from DEEPSEEK AI a technology which functions offline. Similarly, he Research Internationalization and Collaboration Coordinator, Dagnew Mache (PhD), said that such initiation would bring opportunities for students and staff mobility, collaboration and cultural and heritage exchange between Chinese and Ethiopian, especially South Ethiopian Regional State Community.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia and his Chinese Embassy and Confucius Institute staff and students’ team, South Ethiopia Regional State President team, AMU top management, staff, and students, senior officials from Gamo zone, and Arba Minch City mayor graced the event. Tesfaye Habtemariam (PhD), AMU Research Affairs Executive Director, mastered the ceremony.
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