Media OutReach
Everlasting City: Kaifeng’s Cultural Renaissance Thrilled SCO Partners
The summit, themed “Upholding the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ to Build a More Beautiful Home”, designated Kaifeng as a key destination for foreign guests from its inception.
Located in China’s heartland along the Yellow River, Kaifeng boasts a history of over 4,100 years as a settled urban center and served as the capital of eight dynasties. Most notably, during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), it thrived for 168 years as both a political hub and one of the world’s most bustling metropolises.
The renowned British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee once said, “Given the choice, I would choose to live in China’s Song Dynasty.” In his eyes, the Song Dynasty, with its economic prosperity, cultural brilliance, and social openness, was “the finest age for human life”.
A glimpse of Kaifeng past lingers in Along the River During Qingming Festival, the timeless masterpiece by Northern Song painter Zhang Zeduan: along the Bian River, shops pressed close in a lively cluster, boats and carriages thronged the waters and roads, and crowds bustled with life. Thanks to an open society and abundant resources, ordinary life in the Northern Song Dynasty began to bloom with extraordinary richness and vitality. History was no longer solely the grand tale of emperors and nobles; in the bustle of markets and the warmth of daily toil, it etched its most touching stories.
Though dynasties fade, the pulse of daily life endures. Modern Kaifeng integrates Song Dynasty aesthetics into ordinary existence, embedding ancient elegance within morning bells, evening drums, and the rhythm of daily necessities.
Strolling through Kaifeng’s streets resembles stepping into a classical Chinese scroll. Waterways crisscross the city, linking ancient buildings with gray tiles and red walls. On imposing city gates, vivid yet time-honored woodblock New Year paintings burst with life. The fragrance of tea drifts through the lanes, and the melodies of Yuju opera curl endlessly along the Bian River. In classrooms, children recite Song poems with ease. Around every corner, unexpected treasures await: Kaifeng Prefecture, Daxiangguo Temple, Longting, Daliang Gate, and the Ruins of Zhouqiao Bridge. Every inch of the city whispers: History has never left but lives in Kaifeng people’s daily routines and flows through the city’s very essence.
The Millennium City Park (Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden) was a highlight of the guests’ visit. This Song culture-themed park recreates scenes from Along the River During Qingming Festival. Over 200 Song-style structures, including government offices, taverns, and tea houses, stand in orderly rows. More than 800 performers in Song-era costumes wander through, staging over 100 distinctive shows. Here, over 20 intangible cultural heritages are on display, featuring Bian embroidery, the “Four Arts of Song Dynasty”, woodblock New Year paintings, and Northern Song official porcelain. This 600-mu (98.8-acre) “living museum” does more than replicate the painting’s scenes. Through its innovative integration of scene restoration, cultural performances, and tech-driven interaction, visitors gain a firsthand sense of the “bustle of crowds and buzz of markets” that characterized life in the Northern Song Dynasty.
“This is my first visit to Kaifeng. Its beauty transports me through time to the Northern Song Dynasty’s glorious heyday,” remarked Nikita Kornev, Executive Director of the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies, Ural Federal University, Russia.
If an unbroken cultural legacy and the enduring pulse of daily life define the soul of a cherished home, then humanity’s indomitable spirit forms the very core that builds it.
For millennia, the Yellow River’s roaring floods, thick with silt, have repeatedly devastated Kaifeng. Yet, with unwavering resilience, the people here have rebuilt their homes time and again.
Today, this timeless resilience finds perfect expression in the paulownia trees that tower toward the sky.
On the same day, other guests visited Lankao County. They were deeply moved by the story of Jiao Yulu, who, over 60 years ago, led Lankao’s people in fighting sandstorms and planting paulownias to restore the ecosystem. Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Mohamed Moustafa, Owner and Director of the Asia Center for Studies and Translation, noted that he was profoundly impressed by China’s achievements in poverty alleviation. He further observed that Lankao’s remarkable development, driven by afforestation and other efforts, offers valuable insights that could be adopted in his own nation.
Today, the paulownias planted to tame desertification have grown into towering giants. Locals discovered that paulownia wood makes an exceptional material for traditional musical instruments, as it resists warping and offers excellent breathability and acoustic properties. Today, the traditional instrument industry has become one of Lankao’s pillar economic sectors. Guzheng zithers, pipa lutes, and other instruments crafted from local paulownia not only sell well across China but also reach markets in numerous countries and regions.
In Kaifeng, a city where ancient charm weaves with modern vitality and economy thrives alongside culture, this confidence finds expression in melodies unbroken through generations, diverse elements advancing in harmony, exchanges that deepen mutual understanding, and differences cherished amid shared brilliance.
Hashtag: #Kaifeng
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Signals Plan to Make Malaysia Regional Compliance Hub
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 11 February 2026 – XTransfer, the world’s leading B2B cross-border financial platform, was honoured to be invited to join the Malaysia Economic Forum (Forum Ekonomi Malaysia 2026). Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer, shared insights on how Malaysia can accelerate technology application and innovation to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) scale exports under the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), during FEM 2026’s panel discussion, “Made by Malaysia: Accelerating Technology Applications & Innovation”.
Bill was honoured to join YB Tuan Liew Chin Tong, Deputy Minister of Finance of Malaysia, and Mr Ooi Ching Liang, Senior Director of Engineering at SkyeChip, for a discussion focused on strengthening high-growth, high-value industries, advancing R&D commercialisation, increasing productivity and competitiveness, and supporting MSMEs in global value chains.
Drawing on XTransfer’s work with MSMEs across markets, Bill noted that many Malaysian businesses are “able to export,” but face persistent barriers to scaling exports. The most common issues are trust, compliance, and scale, which often surface as payment delays, repeated documentation requests, FX uncertainty, and working capital pressure as orders grow.
“For B2B SMEs in foreign trade, the biggest constraint isn’t demand. It’s the operational complexity behind cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and compliance,” Bill said. “In particular, AML requirements can be difficult for both traditional banks and SMEs to manage efficiently, creating friction that slows down legitimate trade.”
Bill highlighted a structural shift in global trade flows from a single dominant corridor to non-U.S., intra-Asia, and broader South–South routes. This trend is increasingly clear in real SME transaction patterns. Bill shared, “In 2025, XTransfer’s average collection amount from Asia, Africa, and Latin America grew by 106% year-on-year, with Africa exceeding 270%, Latin America reaching 94%, and ASEAN reaching 82%.” YB Liew noted the trend and thinks it is a direction Malaysia should pursue.
XTransfer also said it plans to establish Malaysia as its regional compliance centre, citing Malaysia’s strong geographic and time-zone advantages, a mature regulatory environment, availability of talent in compliance and risk operations, and cost efficiency. “Malaysia gives us the talent, governance environment, and regional proximity to scale compliance as intra-Asia and emerging-market trade accelerates,” Bill added.
Hashtag: #XTransfer #Malaysia #SMEs #13MP #FEM2026
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As the lunar calendar turns its final pages, China enters a period of joyful anticipation known as Xiaonian, or Little Chinese New Year. Often celebrated as the Festival of the Kitchen God, it marks the official start of the “busy year” – a traditional term for the intense, joyful period of preparing food, cleaning homes, and shopping for the upcoming Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival is a deeply significant time for family reunion. In 2024, UNESCO inscribed the “Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of the traditional Chinese New Year” onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
While daily routines continue to evolve, they remain anchored in rituals that provide a sense of normalcy and meaning. It is perhaps no wonder that in a climate of uncertainty, traditional Chinese lifestyles are finding a new audience beyond the country’s borders, with the Spring Festival chief among those unique traditions that are fast becoming a shared human experience.
Diverse traditions, shared aspirations
In a prelude to the broader celebrations, Xiaonian, observed on February 10 and 11 this year, kickstarts a focused period of preparation. According to ancient lore, families offer Zaotang, or sticky “Kitchen Candy,” to the Kitchen God to ensure he delivers a favorable report on the household’s conduct before he ascends to the heavens. This lighthearted tradition marks the beginning of several symbolic rituals aimed at welcoming a fresh start.
A key element of this transition is donning new clothes. In Chinese culture, the New Year represents a moment when “all things are renewed,” and wearing new garments symbolizes shedding the “dust” or misfortunes of the past to embrace auspicious energy for the year ahead. Alongside this personal renewal, families nationwide engage in “sweeping the dust,” a deep-cleaning ritual to purify the home and prepare it for new blessings.
Whereas these practices are universal, celebratory flavors vary by geography. In the north, families traditionally gather over steaming plates of dumplings, whereas in the south, the menu often features sweet rice cakes (Niangao) and glutinous rice balls (Tangyuan).
As Mao Qiaohui, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnic Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explains, these variations highlight the inclusive nature of Chinese civilization.
“Although folk customs differ between different regions across China, this diversity reflects the cultural pluralism within the Spring Festival tradition,” she notes. “Different regional identities contribute to a shared pursuit of harmony and reunion.”
The vitality of these traditions is also evident in local craftsmanship. In northern regions like Shandong and Henan, artisans are currently making Huamo, decorated steamed buns, featuring horse designs for the upcoming zodiac year. Meanwhile, in Shuozhou, Shanxi Province, intangible heritage inheritors are carving spirited stallions onto traditional gourds. These creations reflect the regional diversity of the festival and a collective desire for progress in the year ahead.
Cultural dialogue: From global stage to daily life
The festive atmosphere is reflected further in preparations for the Spring Festival Gala (Chunwan), produced by China Media Group.
Recent rehearsals show performances meshing traditional Chinese culture with international artistry. One performance piece combines the wooden clog dance of the Hani and Lisu ethnic groups with the rhythmic tap of Spanish Flamenco and Hungarian folk dance. And with global stars like Jackie Chan and Lionel Richie on the bill, the Gala’s stage is set to become a stage for the world to come together.
The reach of the gala has expanded far beyond a domestic audience. Through the “Spring Festival Gala Prelude” events held in the United States, Russia, France, Italy, and several African nations, the program has become a gateway to Chinese New Year customs and cultural exchange.
This interest extends beyond art and into the lives of people worldwide, as seen in the #BecomingChinese trend. This phenomenon features international social media users adopting elements of Chinese daily life – such as keeping a thermos of hot water handy, wearing quilted indoor slippers or practicing mindful movement with Baduanjin exercises.
The festival is no longer a distant event but a gateway to Chinese lifestyle, rooted in ancient wellness wisdom and constantly updated by modern convenience, and the first step to a journey of exploration into a culture that values ritual, safety and hospitality.
Whether through global broadcasts or shared daily habits, the Spring Festival increasingly strengthens a sense of cultural empathy between China and the rest of the world.
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Hashtag: #CGTN
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Media OutReach
De Beers Group and Assouline Celebrate the Launch of “A Diamond Is Forever: The Making of A Cultural Icon 1926-2026”
Hashtag: #DeBeersGroup #NaturalDiamonds #diamonds #ADiamondIsForever #Assouline
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About De Beers Group
Established in 1888, De Beers Group is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in the exploration, mining, marketing and retailing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers Group employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with diamond mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. Innovation sits at the heart of De Beers Group’s strategy as it develops a portfolio of offers that span the diamond value chain, including its jewellery houses, De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark, and other pioneering solutions such as diamond sourcing and traceability initiatives Tracr and GemFair. De Beers Group also provides leading services and technology to the diamond industry in the form of education and laboratory services via De Beers Institute of Diamonds and a wide range of diamond sorting, detection and classification technology systems via De Beers Group Ignite. De Beers Group is committed to ‘Building Forever,’ a holistic and integrated approach for creating a better future – where safety, human rights and ethical integrity continue to be paramount; where communities thrive and the environment is protected; and where there are equal opportunities for all. De Beers Group is a member of the Anglo American plc group. For further information, visit www.debeersgroup.com.
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