Source: Guangzhou Daily, September 25, 2012, Page A18
Written by: Xu Jing
Translated by: Li Peiman, Wang Hui
Yesterday the launch ceremony of
The Collected Works of Huang Huanqiu & the unveiling ceremony of bronze statue of Huang Huanqiu were held in Sun Yat-sen University in honor of the former president, whose fate was closely tied to that of Sun Yat-sen University. During the leadership of Huang Huanqiu, SYSU resumed international cooperation and exchange, laying the foundation for it to become a comprehensive university once again.
The Collected Works of Huang Huanqiu contains nearly 80 pieces of his works in Sun Yat-sen University, including his thoughts and studies on university management, Party construction, teaching and research, which reflect his insights into higher education and management.
To show Huang Huanqiu’s elegant demeanor, Sun Yat-sen University invites professionals to design and make the bronze statue. Finally, it is set up on the fifth floor of the library of Sun Yat-sen University for people to pay tribute to him. The unveiling ceremony of the bronze statue was also held yesterday morning.
Revive the Liberal Arts to Lay the Foundation for SYSU to Be a Comprehensive University
Besides encouraging innovation, Huang Huanqiu also focused on the construction of the basic disciplines. Through college and department adjustment in the 1950s and the unrest in the 1960s, by the end of 1970s, only mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, literature, history and philosophy were left in Sun Yat-sen University. There was a crying need to revive other specialties. Therefore, basic liberal arts departments such as Department of Economics, Department of Law, Department of Anthropology and Department of Sociology were reconstructed one after another, which did not go hand in hand with the social atmosphere at that time. Li Xiuhong, former Director of the Dean’s Office, introduced that some people did not agree on the revival of liberal arts because they thought it was no use doing so. However, Huang Huanqiu managed to revive them under great pressure.
In the early 1980s, Huang Huanqiu also proposed to set up two training centers: an English training center, which offered English courses to people who were going abroad; and a Chinese training center, which offered Chinese language programs to international students. The Chinese Training Center of Sun Yat-sen University was founded formally in 1981. Zhang Weigeng, who was the deputy director of the center, attended an educational meeting in Nanjing in February, 1982. When he wrote down “Chinese Training Center of Sun Yat-sen University” as his work unit, some people wondered why there was a Chinese training center in Sun Yat-sen University. At that time, no one could imagine that a few years later, universities around China would adopt such names as Chinese Training Center. “Former President Huang Huanqiu set the trend for the university to open to the outside world and was very forward-looking when he named the training center,” said Zhang Weigeng.
