Date: May.21, 2021 

Source: Teaching Affairs Office, JNU Education Development Fund

Author: Deng Qidong

The donation ceremony of the Zhong and Chen Yulan Research Award for Postgraduates was held at JNU on May 20, along with the award ceremony of the Zhong and Chen Yulan Award for Research and Overseas Chinese Education. Prof. Zhong Cixian and his wife, Dr. Xia Xiaoluan, donated 1 million yuan RMB to JNU in the name of Zhong's mother, Chen Yulan, a JNU alumna. It was Zhong's third 1 million RMB donation to JNU, this time to establish the Zhong and Chen Yulan Research Award for Postgraduates.

JNU Vice President Hong An described the university's latest development and looked back the couple's history of establishing the Zhong and Chen Yulan Fund. Hong expressed sincere gratitude for the Zhongs' care about China's higher education and their significant contribution to JNU's teaching and research.

（Hong speaking）

Speaking from California through online video, Zhong said that his mother, who studied at JNU when the school was in Shanghai's Hongkou district  from 1946 to 1949, had been engaged in education all her life and always cared for and supported her alma mater. The donation will be used to inspire undergraduate students to carry out research on archaeology and the history of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and to build an archaeological area with Chinese characteristics.

(Zhong speaking from California via online conference)

(Xia Huixian presenting a check for 1 million RMB to JNU on behalf of the couple)

In the award ceremony, which followed, Li Wenjing, dean of the School of Management, and Bai-Ou Guan, dean of the College of Science and Engineering and the Institute of Photonic Technology, read out the winners of the first Zhong and Chen Yulan Awards for Research and Overseas Chinese Education and the third Zhong Chen Yulan Research Forum Awards.  Weng Jian, the JNU vice president, presented the awards to students and teachers.

(Weng presenting awards to students)

The couple's three donations have helped promote the construction of New Liberal Arts and New Engineering to a new level.