Attendees of the 2023 Tencent Mini E InnoCamp & Spring Bud Sci-tech Literacy Camp pose for a group photo in Beijing.

The China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and leading tech company Tencent Holdings recently co-hosted the 2023 Tencent Mini E InnoCamp & Spring Bud Sci-tech Literacy Camp in Beijing.

The four-day training camp drew the attendance of 60 Spring Bud girls and over 20 teachers from Gansu, Yunnan, Qinghai, Chongqing, Henan and Jilin provinces. As the second such event, it made further improvement in terms of organizational scale, beneficiary areas, curricular arrangements, study tours and exchanges in a drive to help teachers and students strengthen their capacity building in the digital era.

Zhang Yanhong, secretary-general of the CCTF; Liu Yong, vice-president of Tencent; Ning Duo, director of Tencent Sci-tech Study Center for Youth; and Liu Ying, recipient of National March 8th Red-banner Pacesetter award and vice-president of the College of Future Technology at Peking University, attended the closing ceremony of the training camp.

Explore sci-tech innovation and bolster cultural confidence

Zhang said that the public welfare project on raising the sci-tech and musical literacy of Spring Bud girls is a concrete action taken by the CCTF to follow the proposals made by Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan on the further development of the "Spring Bud Project - Dream of the Future Action" initiative. The idea is to promote the health and all-round growth of children amid the implementation of the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The public welfare project is also designed to help beneficiary girls become interested in science and technology, acquire and use sci-tech knowledge, and further strengthen their musical education empowerment with science and technology. So far, it has opened a set of training courses on sci-tech and universal education, which directly benefit over 3,000 Spring Bud girls and indirectly benefit nearly 6,000 other girls from nine provincial regions.

Zhang called on the Spring Bud girls to study hard, acquire more sci-tech knowledge, strive to build the country into a sci-tech powerhouse with personal efforts, and embrace a bright future.

Liu underscored the importance of sci-tech innovation in Tencent's development and emphasized that the company will continue to leverage its strength, work together with all relevant sides to create more positive social values, and provide children and teenagers, including Spring Bud girls, with support in the realization of their dream.

Ning said that Tencent Sci-tech Study Center for Youth is committed to creating high-quality courses, rich study scenarios and personnel training programs for children and that the center has built a cooperative partnership with the CCTF in the implementation of the public welfare project on raising the sci-tech and musical literacy of Spring Bud girls since 2021. She called on girls to strive for higher achievements in the sci-tech fields.

Liu, who is also a young female scientist, spoke with attendees about her sci-tech endeavors and encouraged them to set no limits on their future development, remain curious about the world, study hard and write a brilliant chapter of youth in the midst of serving the country and the people.

Deepen the integration between sci-tech knowledge and traditional Chinese culture

The training camp opened two main courses on cultural creative production and product design & interactive planning to help attendees learn more about traditional Chinese culture via sci-tech innovation.

A trainee designs her own 3D product in the shape of Tang-style sculpture during the training camp.

A trainee designs her own 3D product during the training camp.

At the class of cultural creative production, trainees learned basic IP sales knowledge and 3D modeling techniques and designed their own 3D products in the shape of rabbit, penguin and Tang-style sculpture.

Trainees design their own APP featuring the promotion of traditional Chinese culture during the training camp.

A screenshot of a self-designed APP featuring the promotion of traditional Chinese culture

During the product design & interactive planning class, participants followed technical workers of Tencent to produce their own APP with an emphasis upon the protection of traditional Chinese culture and intangible cultural heritage.

Expand personal horizon and embrace new development opportunities

The training camp organized special workshops on innovation-oriented education for attending teachers and invited them to hold talks about how to further raise children's sci-tech literacy, meet their diverse demands for science and technology, and bring back home what they learned there to promote the development of rural education.

A girl from Yushu city of Northwest China's Qinghai province said that the training camp helped her learn more about the culture, language and traditions of other ethnic groups. Another girl from Qinghai said that she acquired a deeper understanding of the importance of unity and cooperation from her participation in the training event, calling on her fellows to become more confident and gain more knowledge about traditional Chinese culture.

During their stay in Beijing, attendees also visited Peking University and Tsinghua University.

Trainees visit Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Trainees visit Tsinghua University in Beijing.