Seven days with no sleep, no peace, a blizzard of ideas, personalities and language. It made foie gras of my previously fairly healthy mind, force fed on a diet of eureka moments, chilli and the occasional beer. As a self-proclaimed Sinophile who has not had a decent bowl of dandanmian in seven years, ACYD gave me the opportunity to talk with the people who are currently doing the deals, framing the big questions and pioneering new aspects of the Australia-China relationship. More importantly, I ate frog, sang karaoke, practiced tai chi, cracked bad jokes, exchanged cringe worthy dance moves and pretended to be sophisticated with a group of truly excellent young and youngish people from Australia and China. By the end of the week, I was like an eight year old being dragged home from the Easter Show, tired, emotional, but thinking of every type of scheme I could imagine so I could stay in China with my new friends just a little longer.
FENG Shenghao/冯晟昊 (2012 Chinese Delegate)
It’s funny when I just count the days. The whole ACYD activities only went on for five days, but it has since become a referencing point for me ever since. Hardly a day or two go by without hearing interesting things from the delegates and organisers. And the circle just keeps getting larger and larger. I never could imagine meeting so many interesting people who share similar interests with myself. The ACYD is like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Weibo, Wikipedia, Big Bang Theory and all the good stuff combined and squeezed in a 3-dimensional reality bombshell – it’s ADDICTIVE, but in a good way.
CHEN Sheng/陈胜 (2012 Chinese Delegate)
ACYD 2012 gave me an ideal opportunity to get to know more than 40 young people from different fields and industries. With ever increasing political, economic, educational, cultural, and NGO engagement between China and Australia, I learned about the issues that concern young people, what hopes they have for the future and what promises they will fulfil. I found the opportunity to speak frankly and sincerely with expert scholars and executives with long experience in Sino-Australian relations immensely beneficial.
I sincerely hope that ACYD will continue to grow, opening a new channel for communication and interaction between China and Australia and especially between the young people of the two countries.
2012 ACYD给了我了解四十多位来自各行各业年轻人的绝佳机会，通过他们进而知道了在日益增多的中澳政治、经济、教育、文化、NGO交往中，年轻人都在关注什么、他们对未来的世界有哪些期盼又在践行着哪些承诺。更重要的一点是，能够直接与ACYD邀请的二十多位长期从事中澳双边事务的专家学者、企业家进行开诚布公的交流，让我受益匪浅。
Joshua GRAY (2010 Australian Delegate)
"Having discussed the abstract idea of the Australia-China Youth Association in Beijing cafes with a motley bunch of Australians in 2008, I was extremely pleased to see an event like the Australia-China Youth Dialogue come to fruition some two years later. Reading through the truly exceptional delegate and speaker profiles before leaving gave me a genuine sense of excitement.
The best part of the dialogue was spending time developing personal friendships with an eclectic cohort of young Australians and Chinese, all committed to developing deeper links between our countries. The program for discussion touched on all of the big issues underpinning the Australia-China relationship. The subtleties and nuances of what we heard led to the most rewarding exchange. For example, we learnt how the concept of face in Chinese culture was being successfully exploited in grassroots environmental activism. Such stories get little reporting in the Australian press, which tend to be preoccupied with fanning hysteria over Chinese investment in the Australian resources sector.
There were many more examples which reminded me to keep an open mind when I think about China and what it means; perhaps an impossible task. China is a contradictory, diverse and undeniably important place. I hope that the Chinese delegates had a similar experience and will see Australia as more than a farm or hole in the ground. One can only imagine where the ACYD class of 2010 will be in ten years time and I look forward to continuing to engage in dialogue then, although I’ll surely no longer be a ‘youth’!"