03 December 2021 –  Twenty-one kid reporters aged 7 to 12 and drawn from Grades 2 to 6 went “on assignment” today to the Consulate General and left with a greater appreciation of the Philippines and its links with China, following a four-hour engagement.

Drawn from various schools by the Shanghai Power of Children Foundation, the grade schoolers learned about the Philippines via an interactive audio-visual presentation by Tourism Attaché Ireneo H. Reyes and his team.

The aspiring journalists further satisfied their curiosities about diplomatic life and various aspects of Philippines-China friendship in an interview with Consul General Josel F. Ignacio in individual Q&As. The questions spanned the Philippine’s agricultural trade with China, school system, indigenous peoples and environmental protection.

The Consulate General’s lobby later took on a fiesta atmosphere as the children gamely learned and nimbly performed the spirited steps of Bacolod City’s famous Masskara dance. The kids decorated their own masks using kits provided by the DOT team and guest instructor Ms. Jen Geronimo, a Chinese-speaking Filipino school teacher based in Shanghai.

A halohalo snack gave a literal taste of the Philippines to the young reporters, who each gleefully scooped their mélange of sweet ingredients and preserves of choice into glasses before topping and mixing these with the obligatory crushed ice and milk.

Following an exchange of tokens of appreciation, the Young Journalists symbolically “invested” Consul General Ignacio with the hónglǐngjīn – the traditional Red Scarf donned by “Young Pioneer” Chinese school children – as a gesture of respect and friendship.” END