The International Week of the School of Humanities (SoH) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was held from November 23rd to 28th, 2021. The event is aimed at facilitating the communication in instruction, scientific research and faculty and student exchanges between the SoH and its overseas partners, promoting its cultural strategy of openness and expanding its international impact. It features the opening ceremony and keynote speeches, cultural exchanges of international students, briefing for international undergraduate admissions of the SoH, an international workshop titled “Online Chinese Language Education: Challenges and Opportunities”, and an international cultural forum titled “Exploring the New Liberal Arts”: Times and Rebirth: Digital Technology, Creativity and Science Fiction.
On November 23rd, the SoH staged an opening ceremony for the International Week where keynote speeches were delivered. The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Chief of SJTU International Affairs Division Chen Ke, Secretary of the SoH CPC Committee Qi Hong, Deputy Dean of SoH Cai Wenqing, Director of the SoH International Affairs Office Mo Xiaoling, faculty representative Nicola Liberati, student representative Shawn Michael Odland, and the faculty members and students of SoH and its overseas partners.
First of all, Chen Ke delivered a welcome speech on behalf of SJTU, where he said SJTU has been committed to promoting instructional and research communication and cooperation with its overseas counterparts and has delivered a range of collaborative programs with world-renowned universities including those attending the opening ceremony such as the dual-degree program, the seed fund and the student exchange program. The event, he said, has provided a good opportunity for the partners of SJTU to deepen mutual understanding and promote communication and cooperation. He expected greater communication between SJTU and its partners in a joint push for the delivery of more programs, such as the Global Virtual Classroom and virtual student exchanges.
In her speech on behalf of SoH, Qi Hong talked about SoH as a school that builds on existing achievements to innovate, upholds openness and inclusiveness and commits to facilitating dialogue and interaction among civilizations in the era of globalization. It is the first time that the SoH held the event, demonstrating three characteristics of its international approach: intercultural communication to invite well-known universities from all over the world to communicate; Chinese language instruction and promotion to carry out in-depth discussion over virtual Chinese language instruction and its future; and interdisciplinary interaction to hold international interdisciplinary fora to explore a new path for liberal arts. The SoH will hold the second and third international week going forward in a bid to further facilitate communication among its partners.
Then, Chairperson of the Council of the Confucius Institute at Heidelberg University and the first director of the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies Professor Barbara Mittler delivered a keynote speech titled “Removing Certainty: Transcultural Comparison in Practice”, and engaged in in-depth discussion with the teachers and students.
On November 23rd, the SoH held a cultural event for international students, where they visited the SJTU History Museum on the Minhang Campus and the School of Agriculture and Biology for an understanding of grape growing and brewing techniques, and gained a deeper understanding of SJTU and the Chinese traditional culture through Beijing Opera Facial Makeup and color painting.
On November 24th, the SoH held a briefing for international student admissions, which was attended by heads of the International Student Admission Office and the SoH and those in charge of university admission guidance at some international high schools. Head of the International Student Admission Office introduced international undergraduate admissions of SJTU, and Mo Xiaoling introduced the undergraduate programs offered by SoH and expected the heads of university admission guidance to recommend excellent international students to sign up for the undergraduate programs of SoH.
On the same day, the SoH held the international workshop titled “Online Chinese Language Education: Challenges and Opportunities”, which was attended by the faculty and students of a number of well-noted universities from the USA, Germany, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan. The attendees shared their ideas over the Chinese language instruction administration, online Chinese language instruction design and learning evaluation and the future of online Chinese language instruction. This workshop also promoted the interaction between the SoH and its partners.
From November 26th to 28th, the SoH held an international cultural forum titled “Exploring the New Liberal Arts”: Times and Rebirth: Digital Technology, Creativity and Science Fiction, aimed at seizing the opportunity of interdisciplinary cooperation between Chinese and Italian researchers to explore the impact that emerging digital technologies would have on the world and focus on China’s digital society. With a duration of three days, the forum was attended by approximately 100 experts, scholars and students specializing in literature, philosophy, arts and design, etc.
With a new pattern for international cooperation and interaction in the context of COVID-19, the International Week offered a diverse range of activities that attracted over 210 faculty members and students of well-known Chinese and foreign universities from across the globe. The SoH will continue to hold the event to facilitate the communication with its partners and promote the initiation and implementation of new collaborative projects going forward.