On October 22, 2023, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng visited Sarah Lande’s home, where he reviewed President Xi Jinping’s four-decade friendship with the people of Muscatine, and cordially interacted with local students studying Chinese.

Students including Molly Mercer and Renee Lin welcomed Ambassador Xie at the porch. They happily shared their stories with Chinese learning, and expressed their admiration for the Chinese culture. They also recalled with joy their earlier trip to Washington D.C., during which they toured Chinatown, museums and the Chinese Embassy in the United States.

When knowing about Molly’s Chinese name 茉莉 (Jasmine), Ambassador Xie said it is a beautiful name. He shared his personal stories of learning English when he was young, and said that language is a ladder to broaden horizons and a window to see the world. Studying Chinese will not only enrich oneself and open up infinite possibilities, but also provide a key to understand the Chinese history and culture. Chinese characters are the genes of the Chinese civilization. Each character is like a friend, telling its unique story.

Ambassador Xie gave them a quiz about two Chinese characters: 和 and 合, and the students actively shared their own understanding about what they mean. Ambassador Xie spoke highly of their Chinese language skills, and explained that 和 (peace, harmony) is made up of 2 parts: crops 禾 and mouth 口. When everyone is well fed, there will be peace and harmony in the world. 合 (cooperation) includes 3 parts: human 人, one 一, and mouth 口. So win-win cooperation is about ensuring everyone to get a share of the pie and no one is left behind. Together, the two characters reflect the Chinese people’s unwavering pursuit of peace, harmony and win-win cooperation over more than 5,000 years.

Ambassador Xie commended Sarah for her efforts to encourage students in Muscatine to study Chinese and the youths in both countries to deepen mutual understanding. He said that the future of China-U.S. relations lies with the youths. President Xi’s stories with his old friends in Iowa, especially Muscatine, are inspiring more young people to be part of the efforts to renew China-U.S. friendship. He expressed expectation to meet with the students again in Washington D.C., and encouraged them to take study tours to or pursue further studies in China, so that they could see the country for themselves and better understand it as well as its culture. Ambassador Xie gave the students the DVD of the documentary Chinese Puzzle as a gift, encouraging them to aim at greater success in studying Chinese and be part of the Chinese puzzle. He expressed his hope that more young people in China and the United States will become friends with each other and work hand in hand to pass the torch of friendship on as a new generation of envoys of goodwill.

Sarah recounted episodes of her friendship with President Xi. She agreed with President Xi that the hope and foundation of China-U.S. relations lie in the people, and the future lies with the youths. She said that President Xi’s friendship with Iowa has been motivating the youths in both countries to make friends with each other. The next chapter of U.S.-China friendship will be left to the youths to write. She shared her efforts to set up a foundation to support local Chinese education and maintain friendly exchanges with China even amid the pandemic. A delegation of teachers and students from Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School would arrive on the second day, another example of the continued goodwill between the two peoples. She thanked Ambassador Xie for inviting Muscatine students to visit China, and expressed her readiness to continue facilitating bilateral exchanges and cooperation and deepening mutual understanding between the youths.

The students found Ambassador Xie’s vivid explanation fascinating, and asked him to sign on the quiz paper so that they could take it back to share with their classmates the charm of Chinese. They gave the Ambassador a Muscatine High School “Chinese Club” T-shirt of their own design as a gift, and expressed their wish to visit or study in China in the future.