The EyeShenzhen multilingual website officially started its trial operation Saturday, as a launch ceremony was held at the Wuzhou Guest House in Futian District that morning.
Meanwhile, the SNG (Shenzhen News Group) Global Communication Center and the Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassador Program were also launched at the event.
The website, www.eyeshenzhen.com, now features nine foreign languages, i.e. English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese, providing residents, investors and tourists with all-inclusive and up-to-date information about Shenzhen.
The website is run by Shenzhen Daily, the only English-language daily newspaper in Guangdong Province.
In addition to the website, an English-language WeChat account and a WeChat Channel account by the same name are also available. Users can share EyeShenzhen articles via Weibo, WeChat, Facebook and Twitter with just one click.
As Shenzhen’s first official English info portal, EyeShenzhen was launched in May 2016 under the guidance of the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee. The “Eye” in “EyeShenzhen” is an acronym for equality, youth and excellence. “EyeShenzhen” also sounds like “爱深圳” in Chinese, which means “love Shenzhen.”
At the launch ceremony, Ding Shizhao, president of Shenzhen News Group, said in a speech that optimizing and upgrading the website into a nine-language version is a great effort for Shenzhen to build a modern, globally influential metropolis and to diversify international communication.
According to Ding, Shenzhen is not only a Chinese city but also a city of the world. The inauguration of the SNG Global Communication Center and the Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassador Program aims to inspire and empower international friends to share their personal experiences and Shenzhen stories and to build a community of international communication.
Eight Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassador representatives were given letters of appointment on the stage at the event. The first batch of 25 Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassadors include John Roger Speakman, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the CAS; Peter Edward Lobie, director of the Precision Medicine and Healthcare Center of Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute; and Klaus Zenkel, vice president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and chair of the European Chamber South China Chapter.
Venezuelan Rafael Saavedra, who is a vlogger and received the title of Shenzhen Good Netizen for 2022, spoke at the event as a representative of the Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassadors and showcased some of the features of the EyeShenzhen multilingual website to the attendees.
“As a Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassador, I will tell my stories of beautiful Shenzhen to more people. As I have mentioned on different occasions, Shenzhen is an amazing and beautiful city, and it is a role model for many other cities in the world,” said Saavedra.
The Venezuelan was also pleasantly surprised by the multilingual website’s debut. “The languages include my native tongue, Spanish. I am sure the Spanish community and other foreign language speakers will receive it happily,” he said.
Launched by Shenzhen Daily, the Shenzhen Global Communication Ambassador Program aims to create an international communication community in Shenzhen. It invites Chinese and expats who are actively involved in the city’s foreign exchange and international communication and who have a certain influence in their respective fields to serve as global communication ambassadors.
The ambassadors will share their Shenzhen stories in various city image promotion and cultural exchange activities, as well as on social media platforms at home and abroad, presenting to the world Shenzhen’s traits of diversity, innovation, openness and inclusiveness.
Guided by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, the event was hosted by SNG and organized by Shenzhen Daily.