President Pan in Japan Signing Joint Dual-Degree Agreement, Holding International Symposium, and Meeting Alumni

On April 10th, President Wei-Ta Pan, Dean Zheng-Yu Xie of the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences headed for Japan to sign a joint dual-degree agreement with Aichi University, and to participate, on 11th and 12th, in an international symposium on Asia’s post war development since 1945.

Soochow University has enjoyed close ties with our sister school Aichi University for over a decade. Our two schools have had exchange programs for students and professors, jointly sponsored symposia, as well as field trips on social surveys. Taking the relationship even further this spring, we have now entered into a joint dual-degree agreement which enables students majoring in Chinese, Political Science, and History to study at Aichi University and receive Bachelor’s degrees from both Soochow University and Aichi University upon graduation.

The symposium starting on 11th was an expansion based on Dean Xie’s research commissioned by the Ministry of Education, and was co-sponsored by the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Soochow University, the Institute of International Affairs, Aichi University, and the Department of Literature, UC San Diego. President Pan in his opening speech pointed out that 2015 marks 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The world has since seen shifts and turns in international politics, advances in digital field, and mankind’s constant quests for a pleasant and peaceful life, and yet wars of various magnitudes are still being fought. French author Francois Fenelon once said,"all wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.”A global village has already taken shape and this is exactly the time for mankind to do some heart-searching. Also present at the opening ceremony were President Sato Motohiko of Aichi University, and Commissioner Ming-Yao Tsai of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka.

Nearly 30 distinguished scholars from Taiwan, China, Japan, the United States, and Vietnam presented their papers at the conference with the keynote speech given by Fang-Shang Lu, Curator of Taiwan’s Academia Historica. The two-day symposium was divided into five sessions covering topics of: 1. Postwar Significance, 2. Postwar Discourse, 3. Postwar Literature, 4. States and Nations, and 5. Postwar Colonial Era.

President Pan managed to carve some time out of his jam-packed schedule to meet with Professor Shi-Huang Wu, and Professor Xiu-mi Li. Wu is Soochow alumnus from the Department of Economics and has been teaching at Chukyo University in Nagoya for over three decades, and Li from Law School, currently teaching at the Law Department of Aichi University. Professor Wu is one of the top experts in the field of Consumer Economics in Japan, and despite his age-related physical immobility, still took the time to give this very heartwarming welcome. Professor Li expressed her willingness to assist in exchanges with schools in the Kansai area. With so many distinguished Soochow alumni achieving great success academically and in all fields home and abroad, what better ways could we have in honoring the 115 years of history of Soochow University!