xu yangsheng, president of cuhk-shenzhen: the most important thing in the four years of university is to find yourself and the world in a crowded world
2024-09-02
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in recent days, colleges and universities across the country have started classes, and countless youthful and sunny faces have entered colleges and universities to start a new journey. what is the most important thing for college students to do when they enter university? at the 2024 matriculation ceremony of the chinese university of hong kong (shenzhen), president xu yangsheng gave a speech and answered this question, which is worth thinking about.
let’s read what principal xu said.
excerpts of the speech are as follows:
students, today i want to discuss with you, what do we come to university for? some students will say that we come to learn knowledge. it is true that learning knowledge is good, and university can help you get in touch with the world's most cutting-edge knowledge and technological development, but if we just want to learn knowledge, we don't necessarily need to go to university, we can also take online courses, and online teaching is also very developed now. moreover, knowledge is endless. if we need to go to university to learn knowledge, then we don't need to learn after university?
some students will say that they come to university to learn skills. of course, this is true. whether it is analytical ability, logical thinking ability, writing ability, language ability, etc., all aspects of ability are very important. however, if we look at this issue in the context of artificial intelligence, the skills we learn in university today may not be able to reach the level of intelligent machines widely used in society tomorrow. skills are important, but students, life is like sailing, like driving a ship on the vast ocean. the technology of driving a ship is important, but if the ship itself keeps leaking, no matter how high your skills are, you cannot display them. always remember that the ship itself is much more important than the driving technology.
some people may also say that we come to university to study the world. of course, there are many people in this world who are studying problems in various fields, such as biological problems, financial problems, energy problems, world development problems, etc. we see these information every day on the internet and in the media. yes, we come to university to study the world, but studying the world requires a cognitive foundation. if you only know addition and subtraction, can you study multiplication and division?
therefore, what i want to tell you today is that you come here to attend university not only to acquire knowledge, not only to master skills, and not only to study the world, but also to improve yourself. i hope that in these four years, your intelligence, emotional intelligence, leadership, imagination and creativity will have a huge leap. i often say that recruiting a group of excellent students is not our goal, but our goal is to hope that our students can have a huge increase in value after four years, and this increase in value is often called δ (delta) in mathematics.
so how do we achieve this δ? why am i talking about this here? nowadays, many times, we always pay too much attention to the outside world, and are pulled and influenced by the outside world, while neglecting self-exploration and growth. we should pay more attention to our own hearts, our own bodies, our own growth, and self-improvement. you are your most important wealth and resource, and in your life, there is only this "self". don't always pay too much attention to the outside world, care about how others evaluate you, find your own position from the evaluation of others, and establish your own value. some of our classmates will even find their own misfortune from the happiness of others, and find their own happiness from the misfortune of others. this is not a confident attitude towards life.
i hope that after you come to university, you can find yourself through various activities in schools, colleges, and academies. we need to find ourselves in a crowded world, and find the world in our crowded selves. how should i put it? if you find yourself in a crowded world, you will have confidence; if you find the world in your crowded self, you will have a broad mind! in this way, step by step, you will find, discover yourself, strengthen yourself, and perfect yourself. slowly, you will find the special mission hidden in you and what you are destined to do in this life. at the same time, you will have strong self-confidence and perseverance to complete this mission. students, this is what i think you should do most in this university.
text and photos by guangzhou daily new flower city reporter: wang na correspondent: pan ying
guangzhou daily new flower city editor: tong dan
