Beijing, China, Nov. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the banks of the Minjiang River and atop Kuliang hills, a heartwarming century-old story of China-US people-to-people friendship has been cherished across generations, resonating with the precious sound of harmony.
Year after year, the ripples of the Kuliang bond spread outward, mirroring the shared aspirations of the Chinese and American peoples.
In July, “Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-US Youth Choir Festival,” with the theme of “Singing for Peace,” gathered nearly 30 youth choirs and over 1,000 teenagers from both countries in China, their voices rising in a powerful celebration of friendship.
On December 20, 2024, the 2024 Kuliang Forum, with the theme of “Bridging Cultural Differences, Inheriting Friendship and Trust,” was held in Beijing, where over 150 Chinese and American guests gathered at the People’s Daily headquarters to express their sentiments, jointly envision the future, draw spiritual strength, and continue writing a new chapter in the Kuliang story.
On June 24, 2024, “Bond with Kuliang: 2024 China-US Youth Festival” opened in Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province, with over 200 American youth and over 300 Chinese youth engaging in vibrant exchanges.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the event, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Noting that the century-long bond with Kuliang is a story of friendly exchanges between the Chinese and US people, Xi said he is pleased to see young people from all walks of life in China and the US gather in Fuzhou to relive the story of Kuliang, pass on the love of Kuliang, and help enhance exchanges and understanding between the two peoples.
Young people are energetic and full of dreams, and the future of China-US relations lies in young people, Xi stressed.
Yu Shaoliang, President of the People’s Daily, told the story of the coverage from “Friendship with Kuliang” to “Bond with Kuliang” at the 2024 Kuliang Forum. He said that the Kuliang story embodies the leadership demeanor of President Xi in personally guiding and promoting friendly people-to-people exchanges between China and the US. We should inherit the Kuliang bond, discover more touching stories of China-US friendly people-to-people exchanges, amplify the Kuliang effect, and actively build platforms and bridges conducive to promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
More people are pondering: What spiritual power sustains the Kuliang bond across time and borders, keeping it vibrantly alive? The 2025 Kuliang Forum, held in New York on November 25, may provide deeper insights.
Kuliang promise
Witnessing and documenting the Kuliang story from more than thirty years ago remains an immensely precious experience for any journalist.
In early 1992 – just my second year working in the International Department of People’s Daily – that unforgettable chapter began to unfold. In that year, the People’s Daily launched an “overseas chronicles” essay contest to foster greater understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and the people of the world.
Among thousands of entries, “Ah! Kuliang!” by Liu Zhonghan (pen name Zhong Han) won the first prize.
The essay recounted the heartwarming tale of Milton Gardner, a physics professor at UC Davis who spent childhood in Kuliang, Fujian, and yearned to return until his death. Even in his final days, battling cancer and paralysis, he murmured “Kuliang, Kuliang.” His wife, Elizabeth, was determined to fulfill his wish.
Among the readers touched by the story was Xi Jinping, who was then Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Fuzhou Municipal Committee. After reading the article, he immediately had government officials contact Mrs Gardner and invite her to Kuliang.
It was a great honor for me that I accompanied and covered Gardner’s entire journey to Fuzhou, together with my colleague Ke Yuelin from People’s Daily’s International Department. The article’s author Zhong Han also accompanied Mrs Gardner throughout her visit.
Kuliang dream fulfilled
Kuliang, located north of Gushan Mountain in Fuzhou, was once a premier summer retreat for a large number of foreign expatriates living in China.
In the early 20th century, Milton Gardner came to China with his family and spent 10 happy years of childhood in Kuliang.
A glance at the entire year of 1992’s editions of the People’s Daily reveals that the “Kuliang story” was prominently featured, with five articles published successively, totaling over 7,000 Chinese characters.
In 1992, there were no direct flights from the US to Fujian. Mrs Gardner’s trip to Fuzhou required a layover in Beijing.
That was my first reporting assignment in foreign affairs. Every bit of the experience remains a precious memory to me.
Mrs Gardner and Zhong set off from San Francisco on August 18 that year, and arrived in Beijing on the afternoon of August 19.
On the second day of her arrival in Beijing, Mrs Gardner saw the original copy of the April 8th People’s Daily and learned about the public’s enthusiastic response to the article headlined “Ah! Kuliang.” She happily said that she would not only keep the original newspaper, but also show it to all her friends in the US.
She expressed particular excitement at having received the invitation, considering it a great honor, and was looking forward to her trip to Fuzhou.
At 12:30 pm on August 21, the flight to Fuzhou departed.
Upon arrival on schedule, the group checked into the Fuzhou Hot Spring Hotel. As soon as Mrs Gardner entered her room, she saw a basket of flowers presented in the name of Xi. On the table was also an invitation for Mrs Gardner to attend a welcome banquet at 6:30 pm that evening, signed by Xi.
Mrs Gardner changed into a yellow-based printed dress, accessorized with jewelry, and solemnly welcomed the highlight of her trip.
This was a shining page in the annals of China-US folk friendship.
Xi welcomed Mrs Gardner. He said warmly that a special bond had brought them together. Fuzhou is a city with a long history, and its friendly exchanges with the outside world date back centuries. Hundreds of years ago, it was from Fuzhou that the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He set out to forge friendship with foreign countries. Kuliang used to be where foreign friends liked to spend the summer. Noting the special bond between Kuliang and foreign friends like Mr Gardner, Xi expressed how he was touched by Mr Gardner’s attachment to Kuliang and Fuzhou even in his twilight years. He also said that Mrs Gardner was invited here to visit the place her late husband always missed and to renew the friendship.
Mrs Gardner, expressing her heartfelt thanks, stressing how she valued such friendship. She said that she would videotape this trip and share it with her friends in the UK and California, the US.
At that time, Kuliang had not yet been developed into a tourist area. Learning that she would be able to see the huge rock inscribed with the Chinese characters “Gu Ding (summit of Gushan Mountain),” Mrs Gardner became even more enchanted. She said to me with anticipation, “The two large characters on the stone wall must have been stared at and touched by Milton when he was a child, right?”
On the morning of August 22, the group set off for Kuliang.
At around 3 pm that day, nine local villagers aged between 79 and 90 sat with Mrs Gardner, reminiscing about anecdotes from those years. The villagers’ narratives pieced together a beautiful picture of Professor Gardner’s childhood in Kuliang, where he climbed trees, practiced oral stunts, and played games with Chinese children.
The dreamy visit to Kuliang was not only a nostalgic journey through the peaceful years of the past, but also an opportunity to witness the new look of the blessed city of Fuzhou. Mrs Gardner sincerely said that no matter how times changed, the open-mindedness of the people of Fuzhou toward the world remained unchanged.
On August 29, 1992, we saw Mrs Gardner off at the Beijing Capital International Airport. The warmth was the same as when we first met more than 10 days before; the difference was that we had become “old friends” at that time.
Not long after, Mrs Gardner sent me her travelogue and the photos she had taken of us. She said that in the US, she invited friends and relatives to gatherings at her home, and shared her own Kuliang memories, and she wanted to pass on this friendship forever.
Later, I heard from Ke that Mrs Gardner had become a notable news figure in Davis, with local news media specially inviting her to write articles introducing her firsthand Kuliang story.
I also wrote the first long feature article of my career, trying to present the full picture of the story. After its publication in the People’s Daily, attention to the Kuliang story heated up again both at home and abroad.
Echoing bond of Kuliang
Time has borne witness to the enduring power of the Kuliang story – a classic example of China-US people-to-people friendship that continues to move hearts.
In 2012, when visiting the US as China’s vice president, Xi shared the Kuliang story at a luncheon.
“I believe that among the people of China and the US, there are many touching stories like this,” Xi said, calling for strengthening exchanges between Chinese and American people and cultivating a solid public opinion basis for the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.
Those heartfelt words drew global attention to China, and to China’s Fuzhou in particular, as memories of the Kuliang bond continued to unfold – from its beginnings in the late 19th century, to dreams fulfilled in the late 20th century, and again to new moments in the early 21st century. Feelings of friendship accumulated and intertwined.
Gaining fame both domestically and internationally, more international friends want to go to Kuliang to seek and fulfill their dreams. From September 25 to 29 in 2012, more than 10 international friends fulfilled their long-awaited wish. With white hair and bright eyes, Gary Gardner and Lee Gardner walked to the villa area, holding their grandfather’s cherished family album and excitedly comparing century-old photos with the scenery before them.
Opening the floodgates of memory from personally witnessing the Kuliang stories, I feel even more profoundly that the Kuliang tale not only holds touching histories worth tracing back, but is destined to embrace beautiful futures worth anticipating.
The author is President of People’s Daily Digital Communication Co., Ltd., and a former journalist of the International Department of the People’s Daily.
Source: Global Times:
Company: Global Times
Contact Person: Anna Li
Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn
Website: https://globaltimes.cn
City: Beijing
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