Date: April 12, 2023

Source: Nanfang Daily

Authors: MA Limin, LIU Hanneng, CAI Zhiyan, SU Yunsheng

Translators: LOU Qianqian, WU Jiaxin

(report on Nanfang Daily)

(JNU's students are learning guqin)

To give important instructions to Guangdong on overseas Chinese affairs General Secretary Xi Jinping came to Jinan University and the Shantou Municipal Archives during his two inspections in Guangdong after the 18th National Congress in 2012. According to statistics from return visits by Nanfang Daily journalists, JNU has 14,621 Chinese students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas – more than one-third of the total at Chinese mainland universities. The statistics also show that the number of correspondence and remittance documents from overseas Chinese collected in the Shantou Municipal Archives continues to increase. 

This year JNU has 17 disciplines ranking in the top 1% of the ESI (Essential Science Indicators), 9 more than in 2018. It has 147 alumni associations around the world, with more than 400,000 alumni actively spreading Chinese culture. As the paramount school for overseas Chinese students, over its 117-year history JNU has cultivated above 400,000 talents from more than 170 countries on five continents, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. 

JNU has always made it its mission to promote fine traditional Chinese culture, said JNU Party Secretary, Lin Rupeng. JNU has added one UNESCO Chairs Program; revised the Chinese language textbook series Zhong Wen, which has been distributed more than 40 million copies overseas; and set up its first overseas campus, the Japan Campus of Jinan University.

With overseas Chinese as the bridge, JNU has issued the “Planning Outline for Cultural Construction of JNU,” established the Chinese Culture Inheritance and Communication Research Center, and held Chinese culture communication competitions as well as cultural ambassador activities. It has set up five Chinese culture experience exhibition halls on each campus and built a base for Chinese talent training. At the same time, JNU carefully builds cultural education brands such as the Chinese Cultural Festival and International Cultural Gathering at JNU, providing teachers and students with a platform for multicultural exchanges and communication, thus cultivating Chinese cultural ambassadors.

In addition to the on-campus platform, JNU also organizes social practice activities such as Chinese Culture Tour and Lingnan Culture Tour for immersive cultural experiences. Students and faculty members trace their heritage and travel to the destinations around China where their ancestors originated, enhancing their sense of home and country.

In recent years, JNU's pharmacy discipline has entered the second round of the “world-class discipline” construction list. The university has added two new national liberal arts research platforms. National key laboratories have reported breakthroughs, and various disciplines have made significant progress in the fifth round of discipline evaluation by the Ministry of Education.