The Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies (HNC) held on June 9, 2017, the commencement for its 10th MA program and 31st certificate program.
Attending the ceremony were Yang Zhong, executive vice chancellor of Nanjing University, Zhou Wei, deputy director of Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, and other leaders of Nanjing University.
At the ceremony, 39 students received their MA degrees, and 97 received the certificates of the short-term program, both diplomas jointly granted by Nanjing University and Johns Hopkins University.
Presiding over the ceremony were He Chengzhou, the Nanjing University-appointed HNC director, and David Li, the Johns Hopkins-appointed director.
“While the HNC is a small place, only occupying a corner of NJU, it is also a big world, with students from all over the world,” said Director He in the opening speech.
Referring to this year’s fieldwork by 20 Chinese and international students in Yunnan and Heilongjiang Provinces, He elaborated the main feature of HNC as creating an interactive, trans-cultural space.
He also encouraged all the graduates to be upright and honest, saying that our life is imbued with beautiful sceneries and our hearts will be brightened if we long for brightness.
The Chinese and American directors of HNC respectively introduced professors from their own universities who were present at the ceremony, and the students responded with thunderous applauses in appreciation of the teachings and contributions of their professors over the past year.
The guest speaker from the U.S. side was HNC’s Year 1995 alumnus Josh Perlman, who is the executive director of Shanghai Tristate Enterprises Co., Ltd. with well-known brands such as Nautica, Jack Wolfskin and so on..
Perlman recalled the good time he had spent with his wife at HNC and recalled the great changes in China he had witnessed amidst the currents of globalization over the past twenty years.
We have all benefited from globalization, according to him, but we should now go ahead as before in the present currents of anti-globalization.
The guest from the Chinese side was Qi Kezhan, president of Mountain Capital Group and also an alumnus.
He appreciated the HNC for having given him a platform which changed his life. The HNC, he said, broadened his horizon, removed his prejudices and helped him deeply study and understand different cultures so that he can know the world better and love his homeland more.
Speaking on behalf of Nanjing University, Yang Zhong highly regarded the great achievements the HNC has made for the past 31 years and hoped that the HNC will continue to stick to the educational idea of “helping American people understand a true China and helping Chinese people understand a true America” and stick to a “global vision,” “global understanding” and “global responsibility.”
On behalf of the students, Chinese student Lv Xiaoyu and international student Jiang Taihong spoke of their study and life at the center as well as their thoughts about the graduation.
Lv regarded the graduation as a new start and is looking forward to a reunion with HNC’s faculty and students sometime in the future.
Jiang believed that the HNC is a place that gathers “noble men” with virtue and talent, who seek harmony but not uniformity. He hoped that all graduates will continue to be such “noble men” and strive to achieve their dreams.
The US director Li Dawei said in the closing speech that since a country is made of its citizens, the people-to-people relationship is of the high importance no matter what the future world will be like, and each Chinese citizen and American citizen will have some impact on the future Sino-U.S. relations.
He hoped that the graduates will do their due part to maintain the traditional friendship between the two countries and will come back to visit the HNC from time to time in the future.
At the end of the ceremony, Yang Zhong and Josh Perlman conferred the diplomas to the graduates.
