The fifth season of the Sino-Africa movie and TV program exhibition opened in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Tuesday, with over 20 outstanding Chinese films and TV programs slated to be offered in seven languages to viewers across 15 African countries.
The expo is co-organized by Chinese state broadcaster China Media Group (CMG) and media partners from African countries including Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Burundi.
The exhibition marks the first time Chinese productions dubbed in the Fulani and Amharic languages hit the African screens.
During the event, a number of China-made documentaries, TV series, short dramas and cartoons will show ancient and modern Chinese culture and social life to African audience in their local languages.
While addressing the launch ceremony, Ahmed Abd Hamid, technical director of Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), said that he was very honored to see the communication and integration of the world's two oldest civilizations - Chinese civilization and Egyptian civilization, and is looking forward to more media cooperation and exchanges between the two sides.
Also during the launch ceremony, Kan Ping, deputy director of the film and television translation and production center under CMG, said in her speech that the soon-to-be-released film and television works will display China's development and diverse culture in an all-around manner, allowing audience in Egypt and other African nations to learn about the progress of Chinese society and the enthusiasm of its people, and appreciate the country's magnificent scenery and splendid culture.
Prior to the launch ceremony, a movie screening was held in the city on Monday, showing Arabic-dubbed Chinese comedy Running like Wind to more than 100 Egyptian audience members, increasing local people's interest in China's culture and its movies and TV productions.
In its first four seasons since 2021, the exhibition has displayed more than 120 excellent Chinese films and TV programs to over 500 million audience members on the African continent.
Exhibition of Chinese movies, TV programs opens in Egypt
China's scientific expedition team on Thursday obtained critical ice cores during their investigation of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is known as Asia's "water tower".
The region encompasses "one glacier, two lakes and three rivers". It is home to Purog Kangri Glacier, the world's largest glacier in the mid to low-latitude regions, as well as Siling Lake and Namtso Lake, the largest and second-largest lakes in Xizang, respectively. It is also the birthplace of the Yangtze River, Nujiang River and Yarlung Zangbo River.
The climate in the region is complex and changeable, and its ecosystem is very fragile, and meanwhile it is a pivotal area for Xizang's economic and social development.
During their expedition, the team drilled for ice cores at different depths overnight on Thursday, aiming to capture climate records from different time scales.
Ice core drilling is typically conducted during the night and early morning when the ice temperature is sufficiently low.
Ice cores serve as vital records of global climate and environmental changes. The sediments and bubbles within these cores are clues to understanding the history of Earth's climate. By studying the bubbles captured in ice cores, scientists can analyze atmospheric composition, including carbon dioxide levels, over hundreds of thousands of years.
Yao Tandong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and leader of the expedition, and Lonnie Thompson, a renowned American glacier expert and foreign academician at CAS, conducted their scientific expedition on the glacier Thursday morning.
Through helicopter observations, thickness-measuring radar, satellite image comparison and other methods, the scientific expedition team has found that the surface area of the Purog Kangri Glacier has shrunk by 10 percent over the past 50 years.
The average altitude of Purog Kangri Glacier is 5,748 meters, with the highest point reaching 6,370 meters. Due to global warming, the glacier is melting rapidly.
"So does the melting of glacier surface -- the higher the altitudes, the less the ablation volume, while at lower altitudes, it accumulates and forms branch-like rivers on the ice surface. Currently, these branches extend up to altitudes of 6,000 meters," said Xu Baiqing, a research fellow of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the CAS.
Research indicates that the accelerated retreat of glaciers on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau over the past 40 years reflects a broader trend, and the melting rate of the Purog Kangri Glacier is relatively slow compared to the overall situation of the plateau.
The temperature changes within the glacier also attributed to the great difficulty of drilling, said Xu.
"Due to climate warming, the temperature within the glacier has risen, which suggests that under the same backdrop of temperature variations, the ablation may show abrupt shift with accelerating growth," said Xu.
The expedition was launched on Aug 18, 2024 and is scheduled to continue until October.
Scientists obtain critical ice cores during expedition in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau
