Spotlight

SDJU Launched Cultural Exchange Week to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Sino-German Diplomatic Relations

29/09/2022


On September 27th in meeting room 203 of administration building, Shanghai Dianji University unveiled its opening ceremony of cultural exchange week for the celebration of 50th anniversary of Sino-German diplomatic relations, i.e., the photo show “China and Germany Together”. Miao Ting, secretary of the Party working committee of Lin-gang Special Area, full-time vice director of Lin-gang special Area Administration and Party secretary of Nanhui New Town, Pit Heltmann, Consul-General of Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai, Gong Siyi, SDJU President, and Chen Hao, deputy director of International Affairs Division of Shanghai Municipal Education Committee, attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Attendees also included leaders from Social Development Office of Lin-gang Special Area Administration, S&T Office of German Consulate-General in Shanghai, CDHK Professor Committee of Tongji University, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai University of Electric Power, Shanghai Jianqiao University, SDJU International Exchange Office, as well as SDJU representative teachers and students. The ceremony was hosted by Yang Junjie, SDJU vice-president.



In her welcoming speech, President Gong stressed that in the past 50 years Sino-German relation was steady and future-oriented, and cooperations between SDJU and Germany universities have lasted for nearly 20 years. In 2021, Kaiserslautern Kolleg für Intelligente Produktion (KKIP, English name: Kaiserslautern School of Intelligent Manufacturing) was approved as Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run institution by Ministry of Education, and SDJU would further introduce and integrate quality German educational resources, deepen opening-up, strive to serve the smart manufacturing industry of Lin-gang and develop KKIP vigorously. She looked forward to promoting more productive cooperation, forging KKIP into an international talent hub, a national pilot aligning education with industry and a pioneer of Sino-German cooperation and exchange.



Chen Hao addressed that for a long period of time, Shanghai has maintained good relations with local German governments and universities and gained a great deal from cooperations in higher education. KKIP, the only industry-education-integrated and application-oriented undergraduate level Sino-German cooperatively-run educational institution in Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, was an SDJU innovation to strategically serve the construction of Shanghai international intelligent manufacturing center, proactively adjust to the needs of socio-economic and industrial development and further internationalize. Shanghai Municipal Education Commission would keep focusing on and support the progress of KKIP, prop up SDJU to transform into a platform for high-quality applied talents and cultivate graduates up to the requirements of intelligent manufacturing industry.



Miao Ting remarked that Lin-gang Special Area was closely tied with Germany from the very beginning of its planning. Builders of Lin-gang, relying on the award-winning GMP blueprint, have been committing to reclaiming land from the sea and building a city above for 20 years. Progressively, the urban planning concept of “A drop of water coming down from heaven brings layers of dripples” is being achieved. Miao also hoped that the activity would better the integration and connection between Chinese and German universities to put Lin-gang Sino-foreign cooperation and opening-up to a new level, and by joining hands with Consul-General, more German companies and leading institutes in intelligent manufacturing could be drawn to Lin-gang in the future so that they could learn about this place, participate in its development, contribute to improvement of its special economic function and modernization of urban building.



 “SDJU is a well-established engineering university, and by availing the opportunity of 50th anniversary of Sino-German diplomatic relations, SDJU stages this cultural exchange week with rich activities. It is quite meaningful for our universities to deepen cooperation and facilitate people-to-people exchange,” said Pit Heltmann,Consul-General of Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai. He was glad to being a part and really excited to talk with SDJU students on topics like Chinese or German cultures, science, education and so on.



Hans-Joachim Schmidt, President of Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences, recalled the past two-decade friendly cooperation via video, expected that for the decades ahead, both sides could have more in-depth cooperation and expand cooperative programs and wished the activity a full success.



At the opening ceremony, Miao Ting, Gong Siyi, Pit Heltmann and Chen Hao jointly inaugurated the SDJU German Research Center which engaged Prof. Feng Xiao from CDHK Professor Committee of Tongji University as director. The Center, based on SDJU’s decades-long cooperative school-running with Germany, aims at serving SDJU’s cooperation and exchange with Germany, KKIP construction, and the development of Lin-gang Special Area international intelligent manufacturing center. Besides, it also facilitates research and exchange with German or other Germany-speaking countries in terms of higher education, economy, technology, culture, Sino-German interaction and so forth to construct a distinctive discipline in German studies, become an internationally influential research platform with German thinktank resources, an important platform for Lin-gang Special Area German Personnel Exchange and world laureate community.

Liu Jun, dean of KKIP, briefed about the school. Over past six years, KKIP well absorbed German experience in industry-university integration and talent cultivation, introduced premium German educational resources and nurtured students into excellent field engineers with global perspective and adaptability to internationalized competition in intelligent manufacturing. From 2020 to 2022, KKIP graduates were all employed; 70 percent of its 25 2020 graduates were admitted to German universities for master degree. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, KKIP will stick to its cross-disciplinary, diversified, application-oriented and internationalized talent cultivation model to contribute to the construction of Lin-gang Special Area international intelligent manufacturing center and the global innovation center of Shanghai.



After the opening ceremony, Pit Heltmann, focusing on Sino-Germany cultural, scientific and educational exchange, delivered an exciting report from three aspects—origin of Sino-German cultural exchange, its history in fields of culture, science, education, etc. and its future. His cordial communication with students in Germany lightened the atmosphere successfully.



The photo show “China and Germany Together” planned and edited by KKIP students and faculty, displayed strong Sino-German friendship via four chapters “Sino-German Diplomatic Relations in Retrospect”, “Sino-German Personnel Exchange”, “Lin-gang-German Relations”, and “SDJU-German Cooperation.” The cultural exchange week also include activities like round table talk on the theme of employment competitiveness from a global perspective, excellent Chinese and German movie playing and review contest, Chinese and German poem reading and recitation contest, logo design contest and so on. Some of these activities were held online in the first half of this year in advance, with active participation from students. Sophomore Tao Zilong, the first prize winner of German translation contest said, “My participation in the contest brings me enlarged German vocabulary and strengthened sense of language and a deep taste the charms of the two languages. These meaningful activities have definitely enriched my campus life.” (Office of International Exchange and Cooperation, KKIP)