On April 19 and 20, the first Princeton China Forum was held at McCosh Hall, Princeton University, where Einstein first delivered a speech on his theory of relativity.
On July 27, the Forum gathered in Beijing, inviting intellectuals in science, technology, humanities, and environment sectors to discuss how Chinese international students, remaining abroad and returning to China alike, cope with the world by taking root in the Chinese culture. Shi Yigong, President of Westlake University delivered an opening address, and Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator in China delivered a keynote speech. Dong Qiang, Dean of Yenching Academy, Peking University was invited to join the Culture and Arts panel and deliver the closing remarks.
Dean Dong recognised the Forum’s success at Princeton University and appreciated the organisers for convening the Beijing meeting to delve into the discussions from a new perspective. This second meeting showed that students of prestigious universities around the world are aware of China’s role in the changing world. Young scholars can navigate their future with a stronger sense of identity by seeing China from a global perspective and the world from a Chinese lens. With a keen eye of the changing times and world, the organiser invited key figures from diverse sectors to the Forum’s well-designed panels, attracting a large on-site audience on a hot summer Sunday.
To the question how Chinese international students cope with the world by taking root in the Chinese culture, Dean Dong recalled his days as a student in France. He attributed his life-long passion for culture and academics to the memorable days in France. Back then, his student life in France was financially strained; yet, he was satisfied with an intellectually rich life. He lingered in bookstores and stayed committed to translation and writing in the small room he rented. Many of his fellow Chinese students studying in France had changed their career path and engaged in business. However, Dong has held his faith in literature, arts and academics, and has dedicated his life-long career to the field. He acknowledged that it’s a lucky thing to turn “enjoyable activities” like reading, movie-watching, and museum-touring into part of his work. During his university days in France, Dong delved into France’s primary and middle-school textbooks, to understand the French culture and the country’s educational system from within. He lengthened his doctoral studies, preferring profound knowledge to a rapidly completed degree.
While studying in France, Dong and his friend co-established Bleu de Chine, a publishing house dedicated to selecting and translating Chinese authors, such as Wang Meng, Wang Anyi, Su Tong, and Chi Zijian, among many others into French. The names well known to the Chinese literature have been then brought in front of the French readership. Bleu de Chine is like a bridge linking up the two cultures.
As the dean of Yenching Academy, Dong Qiang always encourages international and Chinese students alike to go into people’s life around China, to understand the country not only as a vast expanse in the map, but as a vibrant nation with diverse cultures. Dong highlighted that the experience of studying abroad and travelling acts as an accelerator in young people’s life; As they gain fresh experience and thoughts from cultural clashes, they turn into lasting driving forces for young people to explore a wider world. Here, he cited his recent trip to an obscure county in Qinghai province. Small as it is, the county has its long-told stories and breathtaking landscape and sees integration of various cultures. Dong highlighted that one feels the inclusiveness and richness of the Chinese civilisation at any time and in any place.
Dong then warned of the damage that utilitarianism may cause on education. He highlighted that education is for goodness and virtues. Elitists should never be the pride of education. Universities are the cradle for upright and insightful minds, capable of sound judgements and conduct, who will become the backbone of human societies. He hoped that students could benefit from their experience of studying abroad and better understand themselves and their own cultures by embracing and immersing in culture diversity. Dong quoted a sentence from Léopold Sédar Senghor, a Senegalese poet and former president, to highlight the importance of culture, “Culture is the precondition and the ultimate goal of all development.”
Before the Forum drew to an end, Dean Dong joined teachers from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and other universities on the Culture and Arts panel, over topics of education ethics, translation, and cultural exchange and delivery in an AI era. Dong said that Princeton is one of the universities he admires most, because the university has been purely about its academic pursuits and remained steadfast and humble to knowledge. He believed that Princeton deserves the title of “the university of universities.” Dong’s words were both an appreciation of Princeton’s core values and an outlook on education.
