Following the Chinese Lunar New Year Spring Festival in late January, the traditional Iranian New Year Noruz Festival will also come in March. The first Iranian college students' Chinese speech contest was held on the 22nd with the theme of "Embrace Spring Together - the common ground between the Iranian Noruz Festival and the Chinese Spring Festival". Twelve contestants from Tehran University, Shahid Bekhshiti University and Alame Tabatabai University told the similar customs of the two countries in Chinese. "Both countries should clean their rooms before the New Year" "Every New Year, the elders will give the younger generation 'New Year's money'" "On the occasion of the New Year, the Iranians will jump on the fire and the Chinese will set off firecrackers" "There must be fish on the New Year's table of both countries"... On the platform, the contestants look for similarities from the customs. Some contestants' speeches were vivid. Some will put on the stage the "seven fresh tables" consisting of seven items that are necessary for Iranian families in the new year, and some will play two roles to perform their dialogue with Chinese friends about the customs of the new year. When talking about the custom of "New Year's money", the speaker will take out the red envelope props from his pocket. Mirzabe, from the University of Tehran, expressed the common aspiration of the people: family reunification is the common theme of the two countries in the New Year, and peace and stability is the common pursuit of the people of the two countries. Alezur Sheikh, a contestant from Alame Tabatabai University, won the championship. After receiving the prize, she hugged the relatives and friends present excitedly. She said that she would like to work in China in the future and make contributions to the exchanges between the two countries. Li Mei, the Chinese dean of the Confucius Institute at the University of Tehran, who served as the judge of the competition, said that the contestants were outstanding among Iranian Chinese majors. They not only played well in pronunciation and intonation, but also in the content of the speech, showing their understanding of Chinese culture. The speech contest was jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy in Iran, Shahid Bekhthi University and the Sino-foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Fu Lihua, the Charg é d'affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in Iran, said at the award ceremony that he hoped that more young Iranian students would learn Chinese well and write a new chapter for the friendly exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between China and Iran. Hailabadi, director of the Chinese Department of Shahid Bekhthi University, said that the match was full, reflecting the audience's great interest in the cultural commonalities of the two countries. (Outlook New Era)