Using the above‑mentioned platform as a bridge and Chinese poetry as a medium, the 2026 Chongqing Youth Poetry Conference concluded successfully—while the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform continues to deepen its commitment to cultural heritage, it has forged new channels for mutual learning among civilizations.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Time  

On the afternoon of July 5, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the 2026 Chongqing Youth Poetry Conference—City Gala and Poet‑King Competition—organized under the guidance of the SCO’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform and co‑hosted by the Platform’s Education Alliance and the Chongqing Daily Group’s News & Fashion Media, concluded successfully in the auditorium of the Chongqing Daily Group’s Media Building. Grounded in the “Shanghai Spirit” and using Chinese poetry as a medium for cross‑civilizational exchange, the event simultaneously advanced the inheritance of local cultural heritage and fostered international dialogue among young people, establishing itself as a benchmark initiative for regionally distinctive youth cultural exchange within the SCO framework. Liu Chenyu, a student from Class 1, Grade 6 at Rongzhi School in Fengdu County, triumphed through each round to claim the title of “Poet‑King” at this year’s competition.

Ling Zexin, advisor to the Chinese Poetry Society, presented champion Liu Chenyu with the “Poet King” trophy and certificate.

Zhang Guangfu, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform, delivered a speech.

I. Deeply cultivate local cultural heritage and build a Chongqing‑style, timelessly classic brand that carries forward the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s cultural legacy.

Since its inaugural edition in 2024, under the comprehensive coordination and guidance of the SCO Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform, the Chongqing Youth Poetry Competition has steadily deepened its efforts to promote Chinese classics, establishing a youth‑oriented poetry education system that spans the entire city and extends nationwide. The initiative has engaged more than 200 primary and secondary schools across the municipality, with tens of thousands of young participants taking part in recitation, competitions, and study‑tour activities. Thanks to its high‑quality content and broad public support, it was selected as one of the ten exemplary cases of the Chongqing Municipal Project for Reciting Chinese Classics—“Dian Yao Zhonghua: Carrying Forward the Cultural Heritage”—and has become a landmark cultural‑heritage‑promotion program of the SCO Economic and Trade Platform in Southwest China.

Relying on the platform’s Education Work Alliance and its established mechanism for supporting campus culture, the competition has continued to unlock the poetic potential of Chongqing’s young talents: at the 2024 finals, “Poetry King” Li Leyi appeared on CCTV’s tenth season of “Chinese Poetry Conference,” showcasing the poetic literacy of Chongqing’s youth nationwide and vividly demonstrating the effectiveness of the SCO platform in leveraging competitions to nurture local cultural heritage and foster cultural confidence among the younger generation. This year’s event featured rigorous preliminary rounds and city‑level galas, bringing together poetry enthusiasts from across the country—including Xi’an, Haikou, Handan, Enshi, Jishou, Xiangtan, and other cities—to compete on a single stage, transcending regional boundaries, building a national network for youth poetry exchange, and strengthening the foundations of indigenous Chinese cultural continuity.

II. Seizing the opportunity of the SCO’s 25th anniversary, we will build a bridge for poetic dialogue between Chinese and foreign youth.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Guided by the Shanghai Spirit—“mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations, and pursuit of common development”—this conference transcends the confines of a single domestic event. Coordinated by the SCO’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform, it has designed international exchange programs that foster cross-cultural empathy among young people from China and abroad, thereby advancing the SCO’s goals of deepening people-to-people ties and promoting mutual learning among civilizations.

The event specially invited Mahrougui Ghita, a Moroccan student at Chongqing College of Foreign Languages and International Affairs, and Nadeem Taha, a Pakistani student, to take the stage and recite their favorite classical Chinese poems in fluent Mandarin. The timeless charm of “Guan guan ju jiu, on the islet by the river” and the bold spirit of “To count the truly great, look to this very day” were brought to life through the voices of these young international students, allowing the aesthetic beauty of Eastern poetry to transcend national borders—earning continuous applause from the audience. In his remarks, Zhang Guangfu, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform, emphasized that Chinese poetry carries the millennia‑old cultural heritage of the East and serves as a spiritual bond that bridges mountains and seas, connecting young people across nations. He noted that this year’s Chongqing Youth Poetry Competition is a vivid example of how the SCO uses youth‑focused cultural initiatives to foster mutual understanding and communication among young people, putting into practice the principle of coexistence among civilizations—and adding a youthful chapter to the SCO’s 25th anniversary of cultural exchanges.

The head of the News and Fashion Media Division at the organizer, Chongbao Group, stated that, leveraging the international resource advantages of the SCO Economic and Trade Platform’s Education Working Alliance, this poetry festival has moved beyond the confines of a single‑event competition. By positioning poetry as a universal language for communication between Chinese and foreign youth, it seeks to bring China’s fine traditional culture out of the campus and into the global youth community, thereby accumulating practical experience for future cultural collaborations such as the SCO International Academy and cross‑border youth study‑tour programs.

III. A Summit Poetry Duel: Young Talents Shine Together, Showcasing Cultural Elegance

At 4:00 p.m. that day, the Poetry King Championship officially kicked off. All contestants in this ultimate showdown were gold medalists from the City Gala, competing on the same stage regardless of grade level. The event employed a real-time tablet-based quiz format with synchronized scoring on a large screen, featuring two key rounds: an “Advance Through Levels” phase for cumulative points and a “Stay to the End” round where players are eliminated one question at a time, thoroughly testing their poetic knowledge, on-the-spot adaptability, and overall cultural literacy.

After an hour of intense competition, all the major awards were announced:

Poetry King (Champion): Liu Chenyu (Class 1, Grade 6, Rongzhi School, Fengdu County)

Runner-up: Jiang Muxi (Class 4, Grade 5, Kangde Campus, Nanping Experimental Primary School, Nan’an District)

Third Place: Zhang Laiyin, Ma Boyu, Tan Yuhang, Shen Congshan, Huang Weihang, Zhang Ziran (including students from multiple primary schools in Chongqing’s main urban area and participants from Xiangxi, Hunan)

During the awards ceremony, Ling Zexin, advisor to the Chinese Poetry Society, presented the “Poet King” trophy and certificate to champion Liu Chenyu. Cai Youlin, president of the Chongqing Poetry Society, and Xiong Shaohua, vice president of the Municipal Institute for Research on Literature, History, and Calligraphy, successively awarded the runners-up. In addition, several cultural scholars presented honors to the winners of the “Most Eloquent Poetry Star” and the “Most Talented Poetry Star” categories.

Leveraging the Shanghai Cooperation Organization platform and the collaborative education mechanism with the Chongqing Poetry Society, the organizing committee has made a significant announcement: all first-, second-, and third-place winners of this edition will be exceptionally admitted as members of the Chongqing Poetry Society’s Campus Youth Poetry Club, with membership certificates presented on-site by Cai Youlin. Meanwhile, the Education Working Alliance of the SCO’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform will continue to provide resource support for the youth poetry event, launching distinctive initiatives such as poetry‑based study tours, online poetry salons for Chinese and foreign young participants, and mutual translation and sharing of poems among SCO member states—thereby establishing a sustainable pathway for young people to learn, exchange, and grow through poetry.

IV. Using poetry as a bridge and pursuing sustained efforts, the SCO platform continues to write a new chapter in mutual learning among civilizations.

Though this poetry competition has come to a close, efforts to preserve traditional culture and foster international cultural exchange—anchored in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s economic and trade platform—will continue unabated. The Education Working Alliance of the SCO’s Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform will take this event as a model, rolling out a series of youth‑focused cultural initiatives: on the one hand, expanding the scale of the Chongqing Youth Poetry Competition, deepening the widespread practice of reciting classical texts in schools, and strengthening the cultural foundations of local young people; on the other, coordinating with institutions and student communities across SCO member states to organize regular exchanges—such as Sino‑foreign youth poetry recitations, online poetry duels, and bilingual poetry appreciation sessions—thereby harnessing the subtle yet powerful cross‑cultural influence of Chinese poetry.

In the future, in alignment with the development plan for the SCO International Academy, the platform will integrate Chinese poetry into regular exchange programs for young people from China and other SCO member states, continuously cultivating a distinctive cultural initiative—“Poetry Bridges China and the World.” By leveraging youth as a bridge and poetry as a medium, it will promote the dissemination of China’s fine traditional culture across SCO countries, transcend civilizational divides through cultural dialogue, and, with the concerted efforts of young people, strengthen the foundation of mutual understanding and friendship within the SCO, thereby injecting youthful cultural vitality into the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

(Contributed by the Platform Education Working Alliance)