Shanghai university inspired by Xi's speech

Teaching faculty and students at Shanghai International Studies University said General Secretary Xi Jinping's report at the Communist Party of China's 19th National Congress inspired them to become stronger in national and regional studies.

At the opening session of the congress, the country's most important political meeting in five years, Xi said: "We respect the diversity of world civilization. We aim for civilization exchanges rather than civilization barriers, mutual understanding of civilizations rather than conflicts, and coexistence of civilizations rather than superiority."

Jiang Feng, Party secretary of SISU, said, "As a foreign studies university on the way to joining the world's first echelon in national and regional studies as well as global knowledge, we feel very much encouraged by Xi's report to better achieve our mission, and we believe that there will be bright prospects in what we have and will be continuously committed to."

"It gives us a clear direction of who we cultivate the new generation of talent for, what kind of talent to cultivate and how to cultivate the young generation," he said.

Li Yansong, president of the university, said that to realize such a target they will stick to empowering the students with foreign language skills and competency in a professional field to make them become outstanding talents on the international stage.

"We hope that our graduates will have profound knowledge in humanistic knowledge at home and abroad and be excellent in both intercultural communications and professional areas. They will become a new generation of successors in a new era in building socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

Chen Zhi, who teaches Spanish at the university and is touring South America speaking on Chinese culture, said that during this tour she found people there have a great interest in China's development model and are notably eager to learn about China's culture and history as well as its wisdom.

"As part of SISU, I hope I can do my best to spread the stories in China today to those who are interested in our country, which is a new world power and global player and is continuously becoming more prosperous and thriving," said Chen, who is now in Chile.

Students at the university, including those in exchange programs abroad, said they feel proud that they will contribute to the country's development, especially in intercultural communication, diplomacy and internationalization.

"The report showed the world the open-mindedness of China as a global power that cares not only about its own interests but strives to build cooperation and exchanges between regions. China's attitude of joining hands with other countries to build a new world of prosperity gives us young people unprecedented opportunities along with responsibilities," said Zhou Xiaochen, a third-year student who is now on an exchange in Portugal.

Foreign faculty at the university said parts of the "Chinese dream" are being realized as the country has made eye-catching achievements in the past few years, including the development of one of the most extensive and fastest rail systems, incredible urbanization and modernization, and visionary plans for the Belt and Road Initiative.

"I'm hopeful that continued encouragement and trust in hard work, motivation, and ingenuity of Chinese people across the land and throughout the world will continue to propel China forward as a reasonable and responsible major global influence," said Steven Joe, a professor of intercultural communication from the United States who has been at SISU since 1993.