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Chinese President Xi Jinping held a welcome ceremony here on Friday for President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is on a state visit to China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders gathered for group photos at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing prior to the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Thursday.

Workers are busy filling photovoltaic module orders on a production line in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on August 28, 2024. From January to July, new solar installations in China totaled 123.53 gigawatts, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent, maintaining steady growth. Photo: VCG

On Thursday, at 11:23, an Air China C919 aircraft with the registration number B-919X, landed smoothly at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. It taxied slowly through a water cannon salute, as it was welcomed at the airport. Air China's first C919 aircraft has now officially joined the fleet.

The C919 aircraft is an important milestone in the development of China's large aircraft industry. As the country's national carrier, the introduction and operation of the C919 is part of Air China's continued mission in the new era, and is a vivid example of transforming the company into a world-class enterprise.

Air China has consistently prioritized safety while introducing the C919. It has established four professional groups with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) in terms of aircraft maintenance, personnel training, ground support, and operation control. It also selected business linchpins to participate in aircraft selection, production supervision, personnel training, and operation preparation.

In addition, Air China established a pilot team. The team completed the first round of high-quality pilot conversion training, completing the systematic training of dispatchers, flight attendants, safety officers, and ground support personnel, solidly promoting the creation of maintenance support capabilities, and comprehensively creating service quality risk management and operation service standards. This process directly contributed to the smooth introduction of C919, as well as safe and efficient operations.

Air China had a considerable selection of the C919 aircraft. The aircraft is an extended-range aircraft with a loose two-class layout of 158 seats, including eight business class seats and 150 economy class seats.

It has adopted domestically produced seats with full functionality, created exclusive cabin entertainment programs and safety instructions videos, and provided customized in-flight supplies and other exclusive configurations to provide passengers with a better travel experience.

Air China will work intensively, efficiently, and in an orderly fashion to complete various tasks including the testing of ground support, route verification flights, on-site training, emergency evacuation procedure demonstrations, and new model operation certification to ensure the first C919 is successfully brought into commercial operation.

Air China has long been committed to supporting the development of domestically produced large aircrafts. In July 2020, Air China's first ARJ21-700 passenger aircraft was brought into operation. So far, Air China has introduced a total of 29 ARJ21 passenger aircrafts, with more than 70,000 safe flight hours.

In April 2024, Air China signed a purchase agreement with COMAC for 100 C919 aircrafts, which are scheduled to be delivered to Air China in batches from 2024 to 2031.

In the future, Air China will actively work with partners such as COMAC to consolidate the aircraft operation guarantee system, give full play to its route network advantages, strengthen market promotion, and select high-quality routes, in a bid to lay a solid foundation for the large-scale operation of the C919.

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector, which gauges activity in the sector, came in at 49.1 in August, but multiple indicators suggest that the momentum of industrial upgrading remain strong.

The PMI in August was slightly down 0.3 from the reading in the previous month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Saturday.

Zhao Qinghe, an NBS statistician, attributed the slight drop to factors such as extreme weather, off-season production in some industries, insufficient demand and fluctuations in commodity prices.

The PMI for high-tech manufacturing increased to 51.7 in August, up 2.3 from July. The equipment manufacturing PMI rose to 51.2, up 1.7 from the previous month, according to data from the NBS.

The fact that the two sub-indexes have returned to expansion territory indicates that China's manufacturing industry remains stable, with continuing momentum in industrial upgrading, despite external economic pressure and industrial structural adjustments, Tian Yun, a Beijing-based veteran economist, told the Global Times on Saturday.

The recovery in high-tech and equipment manufacturing, as highlighted by the August PMI, aligns with another indicator released by the NBS on Saturday.

The New Kinetic Energy Index of China's Economic Development increased by 19.5 percent in 2023 compared with 2022. All sub-indexes showed improvement over the previous year, with the innovation-driven index rising by 22.3 percent year-on-year, contributing 34.4 percent to the total index growth, according to the NBS.

The New Kinetic Energy Index is a representative indicator for observing the upgrading of China's industries and the development of new quality productive forces. The double-digit growth reflects the sustained momentum of China's industrial upgrading, countering unwarranted pessimism about the country's economic prospects, according to Tian.

The non-manufacturing PMI came in at 50.3 in August, according to the NBS data, indicating a faster expansion in non-manufacturing business activity.

The grand dams, whistling trains, bustling stadiums, magnificent parliament buildings, and various factories - these impressive projects of China-Africa cooperation have not only become landmarks across the African continent but also stand as symbols of the enduring friendship between the China and African countries.

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) 2024 is scheduled to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6.

Since the 2021 FOCAC, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has continued to reach new heights, delivering tangible benefits to the people of both China and Africa, an official from the Ministry of Commerce said on August 20, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

A series of cooperative projects, such as the Lekki port in Nigeria and the Nairobi expressway in Kenya, have been completed over the past three years. Over the past 10 years, Chinese companies have signed more than $700 billion worth of contracts for projects in Africa, the official mentioned.

"To get rich, build roads first." Launched in 2017, the 472-kilometer Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has drastically reduced travel time and emerged as the preferred choice for commuters in Kenya, playing a pivotal role in stimulating commerce and empowering smaller towns along its corridor.

In Sudan, the China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) undertook the construction of the Merowe Dam, Roseires Dam Heightening Project, and Dam Complex of Upper Atbara Project, which have become "China-Arab friendly landmarks." The Merowe Dam, standing 67 meters high and stretching about 9.7 kilometers long, is the world's longest dam.

In 2019, these three projects collectively appeared as the background for Sudan's newly issued 100 Sudanese pound banknotes.

According to the white paper, China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals, Chinese companies over the last quarter century have helped African countries build or upgrade more than 10,000 kilometers of railways, nearly 100,000 kilometers of highways, roughly 1,000 bridges, almost 100 ports and 66,000 kilometers of power transmission and distribution lines.

A performance by dancers of the National Ballet of China closed the two-month-long Open Door to Art summer festival in Beijing's Forbidden City Concert Hall (FCCH) on Saturday night. 

According to Liu Qi from the National Ballet of China, the performance for young children included selections from the classic ballets The Four Little Swans and modern ballet pieces like On the Road and Song of the Wilderness. 

The Open Door to Art summer festival has been held each summer for the past 31 years. According to Xu Jian from the Beijing Poly Forbidden City Theatre Management Company, the summer festival has built a platform for audiences to experience the art of Beijing performed by the country's national-level art troupes and international artists as well. 

The year 2024's festival also hosted artistic tours to Beijing, its neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province with a variety of visiting and art experiences.

The upcoming release of Black Myth: Wukong on Tuesday has attracted worldwide attention. The game's trailers and gameplay demos have garnered over 100 million views on Bilibili, China's equivalent of YouTube, and over 10 million views on YouTube. According to SteamDB, a third-party Steam database website, Black Myth currently holds the top spot on the global sales chart.

As China's first true AAA title - a game characterized by high development costs, long production cycles, and significant resource investment, Black Myth represents a major breakthrough of the Chinese gaming industry.

The game is set against the backdrop of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. After Tang Monk and his disciples successfully obtained Buddhist scriptures, Monkey King (Sun Wukong) was named Fighting Buddha and gradually vanished without a trace. The player, known as the Destined One, embarks on an epic journey to uncover the truth behind the legendary tale.

Ke Yuheng (LK), a prominent online influencer who participated in a demo of Black Myth, told the Global Times that the player controls a young monkey (Destined One) who, inspired by the legendary tale, becomes determined to follow in Sun Wukong's footsteps on the journey to the West.

"Right now, we still don't know if the 'Destined One' is actually the true Wukong or just a spiritual successor, but the available material suggests that this is a world where Buddhist teachings have declined and demons run rampant," LK noted.

Cultural export

The game review site IGN China has showered the title with praise, calling it a "masterpiece." "Black Myth is a truly competitive game on the global market. I believe it will be a strong contender for Game of the Year, and after this, Game Science will undoubtedly become one of the world's top ARPG developers," said Charles Young, an IGN reviewer.

While the game's massive popularity in China can partly be attributed to national familiarity with Journey to the West, the fact that it has captivated international audiences - many of whom lack this cultural background - suggests that Black Myth is on the right path.

Many overseas players have been inspired by the game to start reading the original book Journey to the West. Fans of Black Myth have even started posting videos online, sharing their understanding of Chinese mythology and the Journey to the West story.

"Hey, have you read Journey to the West? Because this game got me to read it, and now I'm going back to reread it," wrote Reddit user Gamskining in a post about the game.

As the game's preview sessions have rolled out, numerous international media outlets and invited influencers have provided in-depth coverage and reviews. These articles have not only praised the game's technical and artistic achievements but have also highlighted its cultural significance.

"If you understand Chinese, you'll never forget how beautifully the prose and dialogue in this game is written. It's the kind of writing that befits a major Chinese work," said a reviewer from the video game site GamesRadar.

However, the game's plot, which draws heavily from Journey to the West, has proven challenging for those unfamiliar with the source material. This has been cited by many foreign reviewers, including IGN, as a reason for not awarding the game a perfect score.

"Black Myth stands alone in terms of both cultural content and the themes it explores. The subject matter of Journey to the West is something that only Chinese people can fully grasp, while the understanding of the story in the West is relatively superficial," Chinese professional game reviewer Natto told the Global Times.

Natto acknowledged that cultural differences might create some discomfort for non-Chinese-speaking players, but he believes there is no need to change to cater to the global market. 

"Back in the day, Chinese PC gamers had to rely on translations by fans who had to learn the games bit by bit through self-study. If a game is good enough, people will naturally want to learn about the story behind it," he noted.

Sacred sites

Black Myth features both main and side quests that aim to recreate the original story while incorporating a wealth of traditional Chinese cultural elements. The game uses advanced technologies like real-time ray tracing to deliver cinematic-quality visuals.

"The appearance of the Diamond Sutra and the Amitabha Pure Land Rebirth Dharani in the trailers may symbolize that the 'Destined One' will retrace the path of the pilgrimage, defeating demons along the way and helping to reincarnate and redeem those left behind. This reflects the Buddhist philosophy in the game," noted LK.

It integrates elements such as Daoist talismans, Buddhist artifacts, ancient architecture, and traditional clothing, with game scenes inspired by famous Chinese landmarks like the Great Wall, the Mogao Caves, and Mount Huangshan, allowing players to experience a rich oriental atmosphere.

Recently, the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism released an official promotional video for Black Myth. The video showcases real locations from the game, including Xiaoxitian (Small Western Paradise), Yuhuang Temple, and Tiefo Monastery, drawing many bloggers to visit these sites as part of a "cultural pilgrimage."

"It is said that to accurately depict the story settings in Black Myth, the development team visited several locations in Shanxi to conduct research, incorporating many elements of Shanxi's famous painted sculptures," Yang Jie, a representative from the Shanxi Digital Cultural Experience Center, told the Global Times.

Shanxi is home to approximately 80 percent of China's surviving wooden structures from the Yuan Dynasty and even earlier. The province has the largest number and variety of ancient buildings in China, including numerous examples from the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Jin, and Yuan periods.

Black Myth also recreates architectural and scenic details from sites like the Faxing Temple in Changzhi, the Foguang Temple in Xinzhou, and the Shuanglin Temple in Pingyao, as well as the Tiefo Monastery in Gaoping, transporting players back to ancient China. "The game's near 1:1 reproduction of China's landscapes, temples, and sculptures is undoubtedly part of our cultural export," Yang said.

A number of high-quality Chinese TV series have been rolled out by younger directors who have made a name for themselves in recent years with creative production ideas. One such work, Escape from the Trilateral Slopes, a newly released thriller generating buzz on Chinese social media, exemplifies its director's exploration of creative expression.

The 21-episode Escape from the Trilateral Slopes, centers around the journey of Shen Xing, played by actor Guo Qilin, who finds himself in a remote border town while on a quest to locate his missing uncle. Along the way, he encounters Uncle Cai, a mysterious figure portrayed by veteran actor Francis Ng, who introduces unexpected twists and challenges to Shen's journey, creating a thrilling narrative filled with intrigue and moral dilemmas.

The series airing on streaming platform Youku has an 8.2/10 rating on China's major review platform Douban. Many netizens, at home and abroad, have commented that they saw humanity in the show.

What sets Escape from the Trilateral Slopes apart is its capacity to weave together multiple genres. While it features elements of mystery and suspense, the series also explores profound themes related to human nature, morality, and the struggle for survival. Directed by Mu Xincen, a fresh voice among the new generation of Chinese directors, the series' narrative is intricately layered, particularly through the perspective of Shen Xing, who copes with the challenges faced by young people as they navigate the complexities of modern life.

"If a kind of philosophy or a piece of literature can be passed down and inspire generations for thousands of years, this philosophy must contain universal value that can nourish people worldwide, just like Chinese philosophies of Taoism, Confucianism and Zen Buddhism," Tsai Chih-chung told the Global Times.

Tsai Chih-chung, born on the island of Taiwan, and spends much of his time in the Chinese mainland, is one of the world's artists with the most best-selling comics. Throughout his lengthy career, he has focused on uncovering the universal values he glimpsed in Chinese philosophy and literature, striving to make them accessible and popular by using plain language and engaging illustrations.

Tsai finally carved out his own literary niche. Nourished by these classics, his comic books have been translated into more than 20 languages and gone on sale in over 50 countries around the world.

The artist's ties with the Chinese mainland grows closer as time goes by. Residing in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province after becoming addicted to the "cultural atmosphere of the city," Tsai's personal gallery, which houses most of his lifelong manuscripts and masterpieces, opened in May in Gaoping, North China's Shanxi Province, a region historically associated with the ancient deified ruler Shennong, the Yan Emperor, the ancestor of Chinese civilization.

Like Tsai, other cultural luminaries, including Jiang Xun, in Taiwan feel bound to the essence of Chinese civilization and shared cultural roots across the Taiwan Straits, with their own creations and promoted the Chinese cultural essence to a larger number of audiences through comics and other art forms.

'Easy to understand'

Structured around uniform two-page spreads, each left-hand page features a full-height caption box displaying the original Chinese text of the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi during the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC), which was mirrored by the same format on the right-hand page.

The delicate black lines of the drawings, the English text, the frames, and the ideographs come together in harmonious compositions that align beautifully with the themes of Zhuangzi's writings. The sage advice "Don't draw a boundary around the boundless" is enriched by this visual paradox. Additionally, Tsai established a visual rhythm by placing Zhuangzi's moral-like statements in the unframed white space of a concluding panel, emphasizing their significance.

This is the English version of one of Tsai's comic books, adapted from Zhuangzi's The Way of Nature, an ancient Taoist text. The image of Zhuangzi in the book features a mostly bald head roughly a third the size of his body, amusing readers with characters' exaggerated movements while adding humorous elements in the philosophical literature that is usually considered as abstruse.

Among his more than 200 titles, Tsai turns the ancient Chinese philosophers such as Zhuangzi, Laozi and Confucius into humorous images through his comics and simplifies the interpretations of their thoughts through many interesting stories, lowering the threshold for non-professionals to get access to the sage theories.

"I convey these traditional philosophical ideas to the world through the medium of comics as one of the mediums' advantages is that comics are easy to understand," Tsai told the Global Times. "You need to remember what your readers' demands are all the time."

Born in Changhua county on the island of Taiwan in 1948, Tsai taught himself the art of animation and founded the animation studio. The first full-length animated movie was produced by the studio in 1981.

Then Tsai developed a plan to adapt the major Chinese classics into comic book formats. The first was Zhuangzi Speaks, which immediately shot up the best-sellers list and stayed at the No. 1 spot for 10 months. Tsai's classic series took off since then.

Although Tsai has had excursion into so many sage thoughts in Chinese history, in his eyes, he has special bond with Taoism, the original philosophy created in China. His spiritual idol is Laozi, creator of Taoism, and he thought himself performs deeds as Zhuangzi, who maintained unconstrained mind and life.

Despite having sold over 60 million copies of his books around the world, Tsai has not slowed down in his creative endeavors.

Though settled in Hangzhou, Tsai has also moved his creations to the art gallery in Gaoping, bringing them closer to the source of his inspiration.

New window for exchanges

One important reason why Tsai chose Shanxi Province, one of the origins of Chinese civilization peppered with various relics and a long heritage, is because the Shanxi Province's rich historical atmosphere aligns perfectly with his works. He believes that the essence of Chinese civilization, deeply rooted in the city, offers abundant material and inspiration for his artistic creations.

Since its opening in May, coinciding with the person-to-person cross-Straits cultural activities honoring the Yan Emperor held in Gaoping, the gallery has welcomed over a thousand tourists per day on average to appreciate the artist's works.

The gallery has been recognized as a new platform for cross-Straits cultural exchanges, in addition to being a venue for appreciating and studying artworks, according to the director of the city's culture and tourism bureau.

These exchanges through artworks have spanned different generations of artists.

Veteran artists in Taiwan brought their exllcellent crafts to share with many young people through various audio and video programs, while cross-Straits younger artists are exchanging their ideas in art exhibitions held in diverse places on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.