Boys and girls:
I am not supposed to give a talk according to the procedure, but I proposed to talk about my feeling of these days during the interval. You are the happiest during these days, and it’s the same with me, I enjoyed these days. As the president of our university, I feel quite happy when I see you wearing the academic costumes on the campus and feel the freshness and vigor in you. I felt warm at SYSU when you shook hands with me, greeted me or asked me to touch your forehead, to pat on your back, to hug me, to do a high five or to pinch my cheeks. I knew the sentimental attachment when a child leaving their parents as a student hugged me and said “sir, I don’t want to leave”. I felt the heroics before a child going to the wars when a student told me that he will honor SYSU with his deeds.
More than a week ago, a student from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering came to my office saying that he wanted to take a photo with me. I agreed happily and took a photo with him. After that he left me a letter. I read about his sentimental attachment towards SYSU in the letter, in which he said: “SYSU is our home; it is the sacred place where we grew up and developed. I will always remember the kindness of SYSU and I will repay her kindness”. I was deeply moved by his plain but sincere words.
Not long after that, I met a student who was from the School of Asia-Pacific Studies in the corridor of my office, he told me that he gave up his job in Nanfang Daily and chose to go back to his home town in Meizhou to be a selected graduate in the rural area. He asked me to write him a message; I patted on his back and said: “Let’s take a photo!” After he left, I said to one of my colleagues: “our students are really great!” A colleague from the Career Center told me that about 20 students had gone to work in the western area and primary areas, some of them had given up high salary and went to the primary areas Gansu to be clinical medicine students. I have read the speech delivered by the student who chose to work in Meizhou, he said: “I am deeply grateful to my hometown, to the rural areas and to the farmers. They are the ones who raised me. I will do my best to help develop my hometown, the rural areas, the agriculture and our country. This is what a qualified SYSU graduate should do, and it’s the historical mission of contemporary youth”. I was moved again by his common but noble deeds.
Not long after that, a colleague from the Propaganda Department of the Student Union told me a story about a student from the School of Life Sciences. When he was eleven years old, he learned that his mother had a cancer. However, the student always encouraged his mother and insisted on calling her every day. Even when he was working as an intern at Harvard Medical School in Boston,. His hard-working and good marks had lifted his mother’s spirit. With her son’s encouragement, the mother overcame her cancers and created the miracle of life. The student chose the major of life sciences because of his mother, today he receives his master’s degree with his classmates, meanwhile he also receives scholarship from Dartmouth College and Baylor College. Now his grandmother and mother are present at the ceremony, I am deeply moved by this!
Two days ago, at the Qualification Awarding Ceremony, a student told me that she was about to work in Tibet. I asked her where she came from. She replied that she came from Sichuan Province. She was moved by the dedication of the teaching-aid group organized by post-graduated students at SYSU, so, she became a member of this voluntary teaching-aid group. On that afternoon, a student from Management School wished me “zha xi de le”. She told me she had been teaching at Linzhi middle school for one year, and what made her happier was that her students were about to graduate on that day. After the ceremony, I learned that the student who worked in Tibet had received the financial aid of the “Xin Hongji” supporting fund, and she was moved by the morality of this fund. For this reason, this student has organized charitable donation many times during the period she studied at university, took part in activities which aimed to reliving poverty and assisting study in Liangshan and Xishuangbannan, regions which Yi ethnic group and Dai ethnic group live respectively, and funded a high school student from the Miao ethnic group of Guizhou province with the money she gained by means of working while studying, and when graduated, she firmly chose to work in Tibet. The other student who provides teaching aid is the leader of the 9th teaching-aid group of postgraduates of SYSU. Our teaching-aid group has been working for more than 10 years, and it is a group with good a tradition, and at the same time, it exhibits the true spirit of SYSU. I understand that the volunteers of the 12
th Teaching-aid group have been well-equipped and are ready to work. At this moment, I am experiencing the excitement of our students, and how can I not be touched by their sincerity.
Examples like these are too many to recount. From you, I find out that students at SYSU are well-behaved, honest, hardworking, optimistic, and brave in transcending and taking responsibilities. I see the hope of our country and our nation. There are senses of a commitment to society and a mission to history on your shoulders, and there is a spiritual force assembling on you. As your president, I am very proud of you and strongly moved by you. Students at SYSU are great！Chinese students are great! The youth in China are great! Here, I have an expectation that students at SYSU are able to carry on the essence of this university from one generation to another, inherit the spirit of SYSU, and continue to strive for our country and our nation.
Thank you all. I love you, too!
