"Just now, the most eye-catching thing was the smart glasses. This product should be quite new," said Chen Jinhe, President of the Siem Reap Provincial Khmer-Chinese Association. His remark came at the "Guangdong Goods, Global Reach" Cambodia Promotion Event, part of the "Guangdong Meets the Asia-Pacific · China Finds," held at Siem Reap Public Zhongshan School on September 19.
Marking the 68th anniversary of China-Cambodia diplomatic ties and APEC "China Year," the event was hosted by Nanfang Media Group and the Khmer-Chinese Association, with support from the Cambodia Teochew Chamber of Commerce.
More than 40 products from over 30 categories were displayed, including lion dance trendy toys, Huajuhong lozenges, lychee pastries, smart stringless guitars and AI translation glasses. A visual exhibition, "Guangdong: Better and Better," featured 20 photographs from across Guangdong, selected from over 12,000 works submitted by creators from countries including the United States and Russia.
Liu Qiyu, president of Nanfang Media Group, said China and Cambodia are "ironclad friends who share weal and woe and stand by each other." He noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China-Cambodia friendship has grown ever firmer through wind and rain and entered a new stage of building a new-era, all-weather China-Cambodia community with a shared future.
Liu said Guangdong, as China's largest provincial economy, largest province in foreign trade and a major province of overseas Chinese, has ranked first nationwide in total economic output for 37 consecutive years. "Guangdong's economic, trade and cultural exchanges with countries around the world have spanned millennia and continued without interruption," he said.
"Over the past century, wave after wave of people from Guangdong have traveled south by sea and put down roots in Cambodia, bringing their hometown accents, ancestral incense, Cantonese opera, Teochew opera and Cantonese cuisine to this land," Liu added.
Nanfang Media Group also donated a set of "Love Guangdong" books to the school, which a teacher described as a window for students to learn about the province.
At a block-building area, students assembled models of red-headed boats, lion dance figures, kapok flowers and lion-head geese. One student said the red-headed boat taught him how many Guangdong people had sailed to Cambodia in the past.
Another said the lion dance figure looked powerful, "like a festival." A teacher noted that such hands-on activities helped children remember cultural symbols and their stories better than textbooks.
Huang Huanming, Executive Vice President of the Khmer-Chinese Association in the Kingdom of Cambodia and President of Jian Hua Daily, said that since he is also of Guangdong origin, he pays great attention to goods from the province.
"The tea we drink is also Guangdong tea, such as Pu'er and Fenghuang Dancong Tea, so we feel very close to it," he said. The event concluded with Cambodian students singing "Jasmine Flower" accompanied by a Guangdong-made stringless guitar. Chen Liehao, President of the Cambodia Teochew Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is working to bring Guangdong products to Cambodia and the world.
"These products are both practical and carry the cultural flavor of Guangdong," he said. "For overseas Chinese businessmen, this is the best bridge."
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Videographers: Pan Jiajun, Guo Hongda
Video editor: Guo Hongda
Photo: Pan Jiajun
