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The first stop of Vanuatu Prime Minister's visit to China is Guangdong, and there are these stories and relationships behind it

According to Xinhua News Agency, Prime Minister Salvi made an official visit to China from July 7th to 12th. Guangdong is the first stop of Salvi's visit to China. Guangdong people settled in Vanuatu a long time ago and formed a deep friendship between the two places. During his stay in Guangdong, Salvi warmly extended an invitation: "Next year marks the 45th anniversary of Vanuatu's independence, and we sincerely welcome the Guangdong cultural and artistic delegation to Vanuatu to participate in a series of celebration activities together.

On July 8th, Vanuatu Prime Minister Salvi and his delegation visited the new Guangzhou Cultural Center.

On July 8th, Vanuatu Prime Minister Salvi and his delegation visited Shenzhen Energy Environmental Protection Nanshan Energy Ecological Park

Multiple schools in Vanuatu offer Chinese language classes

Vanuatu is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, belonging to the Melanesian Islands, with a land area of 12200 square kilometers and a marine exclusive economic zone area of 680000 square kilometers. On July 30, 1980, Vanuatu declared independence. On March 26, 1982, China established diplomatic relations with Vanuatu; Afterwards, the relationship between the two countries made significant progress.

Today, as you stroll through the streets of Port Vila, you often hear local residents greeting you with 'hello', "said Chen Yaojing. Like the Chinese, the people of Vanuatu value family, love making friends, and have a warm hospitality.

In the 1980s, with wave after wave of Guangdong people riding the spring breeze of reform and opening up to go abroad, 28 year old Chen Yaojing also joined the army of "going abroad". In 1986, he went from Guangzhou to Vanuatu to work as a Cantonese chef in the capital city of Port Vila. At the end of 1983, Mrs. Liu had joined the Vanuatu Chinese Association as a Chinese teacher.

Vanuatu consists of 82 islands.

At the beginning, my wife had to attend two classes per week, taking local Chinese children to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, "Chen Yaojing recalled. Before the 1990s, Vanuatu Chinese clubs had tried several times to establish Chinese schools, but due to the lack of immigrant groups who could speak Mandarin, the classroom oral training was mainly in Cantonese, and the teaching frequency was generally not high, and the teaching format was also relatively monotonous. At that time, some overseas Chinese families in Port Vila would send their children to Hong Kong for Chinese education.

Since the 1990s, Chinese institutions have sent Chinese language teachers to Vanuatu. In early 2000, the education departments of China and Vanuatu signed a long-term cooperation agreement, and China regularly dispatched Chinese language teachers to the central school in Port Vila, Vanuatu, with each teacher serving for two years. In 2011, relevant Chinese institutions signed an agreement with the Port Vila French International School to send Chinese language teachers. The school received its first Chinese language teacher in January 2012 and officially opened Chinese language classes. In July 2014, the Confucius Institute in Fiji established a teaching site and began enrolling students at the Vanuatu campus of the University of the South Pacific, marking a comprehensive development period for Chinese language teaching in Vanuatu.

A farmers' market in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu.

Mr. Guan, whose ancestral home is Kaiping, Guangdong, was born in the Solomon Islands and later engaged in business in Vanuatu for more than ten years. He noticed that as China continues to develop and deepen friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation with South Pacific island countries, Chinese language teaching in Vanuatu and other South Pacific island countries is ushering in new opportunities for development.

In recent years, Chinese companies have become increasingly active in investing in Vanuatu, while more and more Chinese tourists have entered Vanuatu. In addition, the Chinese government has provided Vanuatu with a number of projects that benefit people's livelihoods and promote development. Talents who speak Chinese and understand Chinese culture are popular in the local job market, "said Mr. Guan.

On the 1st of this month, the office building projects of the Vanuatu Presidential Palace, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which were constructed by Chinese enterprises, were officially handed over. This is another important project after the completion of multiple Chinese aid projects such as the Vanuatu Prime Minister's Office, Conference Center, National Stadium, and Malapo School expansion. It is also the largest complete construction project supported by the Chinese government to Vanuatu at present. Vanuatu's President Vorobarawu, Prime Minister Salvi, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Serimaya and other political figures attended the ceremony.

Vanuatu Guangfu Hall held the Spring Festival Gala to celebrate the 2024 the Year of the Loong.

Overseas Chinese in Vanuatu venture into the business world as a family unit

The Pacific island region, including Vanuatu, is the southern extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and a key area for Guangdong's higher-level and all-round opening-up and cooperation with the outside world.

In 2019, China and Vanuatu officially signed the cooperation plan of jointly building the "the Belt and Road", laying out a grand blueprint for all-round practical cooperation between the two countries. With the continuous progress of the construction of the "the Belt and Road", China and Vanuatu are increasingly becoming a community of common destiny with "you and me".

In April 2021, the Vanuatu Guangfu Association held its founding ceremony in the capital city of Port Vila. At the event, the President of Vanuatu presented the Order of Honor for the 40th Anniversary of Vanuatu's Independence to the first council members of the Guangfu Association. Lin Liu, then Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Vanuatu, presented appointment letters to the council members, and Chen Yaojing was elected as the first president.

For over 100 years, Chinese people have made significant contributions to the economic and social development of Vanuatu, "said Chen Yaojing. Currently, there are about 2000 overseas Chinese living in Vanuatu, including more than 200 descendants of Guangfu people living in Port Vila, mainly from Zengcheng, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Taishan, Heshan, Enping and other places.

A farmers' market in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu.

Having settled in Vanuatu for over 30 years, Chen Yaojing opened a Chinese restaurant and later ventured into the wholesale and retail industry of department stores. Most of Vanuatu's daily necessities, clothing, hats, household appliances, and industrial products rely on imports. Chinese people saw business opportunities from this and initially ordered from Hong Kong, but later switched to purchasing from Guangzhou and Yiwu. He introduced that overseas Chinese living in Vanuatu mainly engage in business, mainly engaged in import and export trade, catering, supermarkets, department stores, hotels, and other businesses, playing an important role in Vanuatu's economic development, especially in commodity circulation.

Fei Sheng, director of the Oceanian Research Center at Sun Yat sen University, conducted field investigations and oral interviews in Vanuatu. He introduced that the earliest Chinese to appear in Vanuatu were reportedly chefs and carpenters who came with British merchant ships in 1844, but the descendants of these early immigrants can no longer be found locally; The first group of Chinese to truly survive and reproduce were the retailers who began to emerge in the late 19th century.

The total population of Vanuatu is about 320000, of which 98% are Vanuatu people, belonging to the Melanesian ethnic group.

Fei Sheng learned through visits that the Chinese business community now has significant influence in the Vanuatu economy, and family based business activities dominate the social life of local Chinese. For example, the Chinese Association in the capital city of Port Vila is registered as a legal entity and has formulated its articles of association in accordance with the company law.

Fei Sheng stated that in the Chinese community in the island regions of Oceania, the scale of Vanuatu Chinese is relatively small and belongs to a typical ethnic minority. Most of them live in the capital city of Port Vila, as well as another port city with relatively complete infrastructure - Luganville. The characteristic of living near the port directly indicates the deep overseas origins and connections of the local Chinese.

On July 8th, Vanuatu Prime Minister Salvi and his delegation visited the Shenneng Environmental Protection Nanshan Energy Ecological Park.

Friendship lasts long, crossing mountains and seas. The islands of Oceania are one of the earliest overseas regions to accept Chinese immigrants, and they continue to absorb new immigrants, with a long historical continuity. "Fei Sheng said that with the continuous expansion of exchanges and cooperation between China and Pacific island countries in recent years, Chinese immigrants in the islands of Oceania have not only been deeply influenced by China's development, but have also become an important medium for China to expand international exchanges and cooperation.