10 paintings from Africa on display at Tiangong

Ten paintings created by African youths are showing what lofty dreams can achieve from an unprecedented corner of the universe — the Tiangong space station.

The artworks were selected through a competition, themed "My Dream", which received more than 2,000 entries from 42 African countries. They are now on display at the first international art exhibition at the Chinese space station.

At the awarding ceremony held on Wednesday in Beijing, the three astronauts who are conducting a mission at Tiangong introduced the 10 paintings to the audience, including winners and participants, through a recorded video call from the space station.

Astronaut Zhu Yangzhu showed two of the paintings — the first, from Nigeria, titled Shared Aspirations and the other, from Egypt, called China Is Africa's Hope to Realize Its Space Dream. In the latter, an African astronaut is seen shaking hands with a Chinese astronaut on another planet, with the Earth in the backdrop, where China and the African continent can clearly be seen.

"Your paintings show the enthusiasm of African youth for manned space missions, giving me confidence in China-Africa space cooperation in the future," Zhu said. "Exploring the unknown universe and developing space technology is the common cause of mankind, which cannot be separated from the cooperation of all countries in the world, including from Africa."

Another painting titled L'Unification, from Mali, shows colorful pieces of cloth being sewn together, which is symbolic of peace and unity. The idea is "to eliminate differences and rifts, and build a peaceful and beautiful world together", Zhu said.

The competition was jointly organized by the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the China Manned Space Agency.

During the awarding ceremony, Caren Chebet, a fourth-year student from the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, was among young people from nine African countries who got a chance to interact with Chen Dong, a Chinese astronaut who has conducted two missions to Tiangong in the past.

Chebet said that mysteries of the universe have fascinated her since childhood and she has always dreamed of flying into space. She said that Africans will soon see not just their paintings but themselves in space by learning from and cooperating with China's technology in space exploration.

Chebet expressed her heartfelt gratitude to China for giving hope to young Africans, including girls like herself.

Otiato Opali in Nairobi contributed to this story.