Not many people link the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with rock ‘n' roll. Eager to break its stereotype of a staid event just for ministers and business leaders, the organization kicked off its 40th birthday celebrations earlier this year with ASEAN Rocks! The concert on January 27 featured performances by the best bands from the 10 ASEAN countries at the Hard Rock Cafe in Singapore.

The commemorative event was held to promote ASEAN and its 40th anniversary among members of the younger generation through music they enjoy. The organization wants them to be proud of being members of ASEAN, just as their counterparts in Europe are proud of being citizens of the European Union. This objective is especially clear as ASEAN celebrated its birthday on August 8.

With the theme "One ASEAN at the Heart of Dynamic Asia," the region is indulging in yearlong celebrations. ASEAN is worthy of these festivities. Throughout its four decades of efforts to achieve unity through diversity, a collective new look in the region has gradually taken shape with the "pearls scattered on the Southwest Pacific" finally forming an enchanting necklace.

ASEAN successfully united first five, then 10, countries into one bloc, leading to the region's integration. It started as "ASEAN Plus One" and "ASEAN Plus Three" with China, Japan and South Korea, which ushered in cooperation in East Asia. This cooperation peaked at the East Asian Summit, which included other countries such as India, Australia and New Zealand. The organization now is exerting its influence beyond Southeast Asia, East Asia and Asia-Pacific, and its leading role in East Asia is widely recognized and respected.

ASEAN is not satisfied with what it so far has achieved. It is eyeing something bigger-the ASEAN Community, which it hopes to realize by 2015. The ASEAN Community will be a single market and production base with freely flowing goods, services, investment, skilled labor and a freer flow of capital. In another words, the ASEAN Community will be a stronger, more unified and more cohesive version of ASEAN.

China and ASEAN began working together 16 years ago. Under the efforts of both, their relations are now "the best they have ever been." China and ASEAN's mutual political trust is improving. As a partner of ASEAN, China is not only the first country to join the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, but also ASEAN's first strategic partner. By signing the Declaration on the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea, China and ASEAN countries have a legal foundation to solve their age-old disputes over maritime borders.

Economics is a major driving force in their relationship. The past 16 years have seen the volume of China-ASEAN trade increase more than 20-fold. With the construction of a free trade zone between the two sides, they can expect more.

In the coming years, China and ASEAN will find new priorities in their contact and cooperation. Social and cultural exchanges and communication between peoples, especially young people, seem to be the future direction. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reflected this in his promise to invite 300 young people from ASEAN countries to visit China and set up a China-ASEAN Youth Campus in south China this year. Hopefully, this initiative will provide another opportunity for youth from China and ASEAN countries to rock together.