China News Agency, Washington, June 27th, "We assembled the mortise and tenon beams. Each mortise and tenon member is relatively thin, but they are combined with each other, support each other, and can withstand huge pressure. This small part represents the Chinese people's wisdom and way of life," said Qin Gang, Chinese ambassador to the United States, when he visited the reconstruction site of the Chinese residential project in the mountains of West Virginia on the 26th.
China Folk House is a non-profit project initiated by Dr. John Flower and his wife.
When Flower visited Cizhong Village in Yunnan in 2017, he found this wooden dwelling that integrates elements of Han, Tibetan and Naxi cultures.
With the joint efforts of the Flowers and the local people in Yunnan, after the original house was demolished as a whole, all the wood was shipped to the United States and is being rebuilt on the Xanadu River in Jefferson Township, West Virginia.
Qin Gang put on work clothes and gloves that day, and participated in the restoration of residential buildings.
He and his students picked up baskets of hemp ash and poured them into molds to build the outer walls of the kitchens of the dwellings.
After the mortise-and-mortise structure of the house was assembled, Qin Gang and a carpenter climbed up the ladder and nailed wedges to the beam.
Qin Gang delivered a speech at the graduation ceremony of the students of the Reconstruction Summer Program held later, saying that the world is currently facing great changes unseen in a century, and Sino-US relations have also encountered some difficulties.
Faced with these challenges, the people of China and the United States are like mortise and tenon pieces. Although the strength of each individual is limited, as long as we seek common ground while reserving differences, enhance communication and strengthen cooperation, we can play a huge role in making the building of China-US friendship a reality. more solid.
He also said that the restoration of Chinese residences here is to bring Chinese culture to the American community, representing the simple feelings of the American people for Chinese culture and the Chinese people, and condensing the joint efforts of the two peoples. house.
It is hoped that in the future, rich and colorful cultural exchange activities will be held here to enhance the understanding of Chinese culture among the American people, especially young students, and deepen the friendship between the two peoples.
"Today I participated in labor in a Chinese residential house. This is my first time working as a construction worker, but I don't feel tired at all, because I am very excited by the exchanges with the American people." Qin Gang said in a subsequent interview with the media, seeing some With so many American students, parents and teachers supporting this project, I deeply feel that there are many people in the United States who hope for a good relationship between China and the United States, and we will continue to strongly support the friendly exchanges between the two peoples.
After the restoration of the residence, it will provide a training place for students in the Greater Washington area of the United States to understand and experience the customs, culture, architecture, agriculture, handicrafts, etc. in northwestern Yunnan, China, and promote cultural exchanges between China and the United States.
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