Youth in Action, a themed event celebrating the 2020 International Day of Peace, kicks off in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, Sept 21. [Photo/nanjing.gov.cn]

Youth in Action, a themed event celebrating the 2020 International Day of Peace, kicked off in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, Sept 21.

Nanjing was the first city in China to be rated an international city of peace.

The event was organized by UNESCO, the Chinese National Commission of UNESCO, the information office of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, and Nanjing Municipal People's Government.

The event witnessed UNESCO and Nanjing government signing a memorandum of understanding to jointly build an environment of peace and promote peace culture.

The Peace Forum was the two sides' latest project and they agreed to hold the forum annually from 2020 to 2022, with the first edition opening Oct 24.

At the "youth and peace" dialogue session, experts and scholars from various fields freely shared their reflections on topics such as women and children, poverty elimination, and youth responsibilities.

Li Bingmei from the International Plan Project of UNESCO said her project has directly benefited over 63,000 teenagers, 33,000 of whom were girls. Wang Xingyu, founder of Beyond the City Co, explained how he invited urban children to embark on study trips to rural areas and vice versa, and funded rural children to enhance their understanding of career development and planning in big cities.

Various singing, dancing and music recitals were also held, aiming to salute peace through art. Miumiu, a 7-year-old girl from Nanjing, sang Fly Me to the Moon with Situ Helun, a singer-songwriter returned from the United Kingdom. Miumiu's videos showing her playing the guitar and singing different songs went viral on YouTube. She has won over 270,000 likes from overseas netizens and some commended her music as "a flower in chaos" and "saving the world from darkness". Many renowned stars such as Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Xue Kaiqi have offered to accompany her.

Miumiu, a 7-year-old girl from Nanjing, performs at the event. [Photo/nanjing.gov.cn]