Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
I come to address you all from Croatia – a country 8000 km from China and many times smaller in area and population. However, with the connectedness of today’s world, the distance between two countries is meaningless as the internet allows us access to billions of people all over the globe, as well as incredible amounts of information. Thus, our unity has strengthened and so has our identity as global citizens.
Being a global citizen involves adopting certain values that are aimed at the development of a prosperous and unified world – global mindfulness, cultural acceptance, equality, and ecological awareness are all examples of key principles of being a global citizen. Although these values might seem an idea born in the globalized world of the 20th and 21st century, they draw parallels with ideas of millennia-old Confucian philosophy. Concepts such as datong shijie - a world of grand unity, rendao zhuyi - humanitarianism and heping zhuyi – pacifism, are all points of contact between the modern definition of a global citizen and a world where the main lifeline of trade, cultural interaction and the sharing of knowledge was the Silk Road.
One of many who traveled it was Marco Polo, a Venetian trader with Croatian roots who visited the court of emperor Hubilie, the founder of the Yuan dynasty. In the following centuries, this interaction continued through the trade between China and the Dubrovnik Republic along the Silk Road – an activity that allowed for the Dubrovnik Republic’s prosperity and sovereignty. With time, Croatian-Chinese relations modernized, and important aspect of current relations - one that promotes the identity of a global citizen through cultural exchange is educational cooperation. In 2012 the Confucius Institute was opened in Zagreb – a key contributor in the teaching of Chinese culture and language to Croatians. This opened up possibilities of business and infrastructural cooperation between China and Croatia and continues to do so. But what can we do in order to become global citizens?
Firstly, we should open our minds to different viewpoints of people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, to have a broader understanding of the world. We must be curious and informed about the happenings around the globe and understand their implications and importance, discuss the problems and think of sustainable ways to solve them. We should travel, exchange ideas with people of other countries, and learn languages to facilitate better communication and transfer of knowledge.
As young people, the world depends on us and the skills and values we adopt throughout our lives. Therefore, we should all unite to create a better future for ourselves and the generations to come. The knowledge we should possess and the steps we should take have already been proven centuries ago by our wise ancestors that traded along the Silk Road – there is no success if it is not mutual success, there is no trade without peace, and there is no peace without understanding.