Giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are introduced at the Atlanta Zoo

Three weeks of deals, demonstrations, and impressive new products are concluding in Guangzhou, China. The 140th Canton Fair, officially known as the China Import and Export Fair, closed on November 4th after gathering 32,000 participants in Guangdong province in southern China.

This year, the large-scale trade exhibition focused on themes of the future: robots capable of walking dogs, artificial intelligence assisting mobility, and ecological technologies that can power the world.

Robots and Wearable Devices

The robotics zone attracted significant attention from visitors. At the booth of Hangzhou Taixi Intelligent Technology, foreign buyers queued up to try out a wearable exoskeleton designed to support the legs and lower back. This device weighs about two kilograms, detects user movements, and assists them in walking.

Founder Lian Linchao stated that this is the company's first flagship product integrating their human-centric physical AI technology. Technological innovations are rapidly developing across all sectors of China. At this fair, 64% of exhibitors integrated industrial internet and AI into their R&D and production processes, and new products accounted for a record 23.2% of all exhibited items.

Customs data confirms this boom: imports and exports of Chinese industrial robots, electronic components, computer parts, and electrical equipment grew by 58.9% compared to the previous year, exceeding 10 trillion yuan ($1.49 trillion USD) in the first quarter of 2026.

Services and Green Technologies

Services are emerging as a new area of growth. For the first time, the fair's services zone covered all ten major categories of service industries, including logistics, industrial design, and cross-border financing. Official data shows that 36.5% of exhibitors have begun incorporating services into their business models.

Eco-friendly products are also in high demand amid countries' transition to clean energy, green technologies, and economic decarbonization. Xiamen HiTHIUM Energy Storage Technology presented its flagship products for long-term energy storage. CEO Wang Pencheng expressed hope that the fair would help present China's long-term energy storage solutions to a wider international audience, giving more countries access to stable and affordable clean energy.

Chongqing SUNDON Prefabricated Construction and Technology attracted buyers from Australia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. The company's Director of Planning and Design, Jia Xuehun, reported that preliminary agreements had been reached with over 300 buyers.

China is contributing to the global green transition by supplying a huge share of world renewable technologies. Over the past decade, the country has provided more than 80% of the world's photovoltaic modules and 70% of wind energy equipment, helping to reduce the cost of clean energy everywhere.

The Canton Fair demonstrates that Chinese trade is moving toward an entirely new model focused on higher value-added products and more comprehensive services.

At the 'Guangzhou Open' tournament, held in Guangzhou, China, as part of the WTA 250 series, the pair Maria Timofeeva and Polina Kudermetova represents their country and defends its honor.

Iranian director Marem Amiri will stage the play 'The History of Pandas, Told by a Saxophonist Who Has a Girlfriend in Frankfurt' at the Media Theatre in Tehran. This play is by the Romanian-French playwright Matei Visnecu.

The work, which was translated into Persian by Haniyeh Rajabi and directed by Vahid Salehghard, will begin performances on Thursday. The two-character play will feature Iranian actors Hayyam Vakar Kashani and Ghazaleh Akrami.

The plot explores an unusual encounter between a man and a woman that unfolds over nine nights, blurring the lines between reality, memory, and imagination. The story begins with the man waking up to find an unfamiliar woman beside him. Despite the uncertainty of their meeting, he asks her to stay with him for nine nights, and she agrees, beginning a strange and intimate journey together that gradually calls into question their identities, relationship, and the nature of their shared experience.

The play does not develop according to a traditional dramatic structure but through a series of interactions between the two main characters. Their dialogues and conversations gradually reveal fragments of their inner world, leaving the audience to interpret the events and the meaning of their connection.

The surreal atmosphere and poetic dialogue are characteristic features of Visnecu's theatrical writing, which often mixes elements of absurdity with reflections on human relationships, loneliness, and the instability of reality. In 'The History of Pandas,' the seemingly simple premise of the man asking a stranger to stay with him serves as a basis for examining the need for companionship and the uncertainties that shape human encounters.

The nine-day structure also lends the drama a sense of anticipation, as each meeting adds a new layer to the relationship between the man and the woman. Audiences are invited to piece together the meaning of their exchanges, confronting the ambiguity underlying the narrative.

Visnecu, born in Romania in 1956, is a playwright, poet, and journalist who has gained international recognition for his works exploring the absurdity of modern life, political realities, and the human condition. He moved to France in 1987 and has since actively written for the stage, with his plays being translated and performed in many countries.

His dramatic works often employ fragmented narratives, symbolic imagery, and unconventional situations to analyze issues of identity, communication, and existence. His work combines philosophical reflection with theatrical experimentation, allowing directors to approach his texts through a wide range of interpretations. The production of 'The History of Pandas, Told by a Saxophonist Who Has a Girlfriend in Frankfurt' will run at the Media Theatre in Tehran for one month.