The Tsinghua University Commencement Ceremony 2023 for Undergraduate Students was held on the morning of June 24.
Leaders of the University, Qiu Yong, Wang Xiqin, Yang Bin, Guo Yong, Zheng Li, Xiang Botao, Zhao Gang, Peng Gang, Zeng Rong, Jiang Peixue, Xu Qinghong, Wang Hongwei, Li Luming and Vice Provost and Director of Academic Affairs Office Liu Yi attended the ceremony. Peng Gang presided over the ceremony.
During the ceremony, 3,618 undergraduates were awarded bachelor’s degrees. A further 81 undergraduate students received second bachelor’s degrees, and 292 undergraduate students were awarded minor bachelor’s degrees.
Secretary of the CPC Tsinghua University Committee Qiu Yong announced the decision to commend the outstanding classes and excellent graduates, and expressed his expectations and well-wishes to the students." Dear students, today you are about to turn over a new page in your life, embarking on a new journey of glorious and dreamful youth," Qiu Yong said.
He added that he hopes that the undergraduates will have lofty aspirations, love the country and contribute to it, pursue excellence, firmly listen to and follow the Party, firmly serve the motherland and the people, and strive to grow into talents who can be relied upon and take on heavy responsibilities.
Wang Xiqin, Tsinghua President and Chairman of the Academic Degrees Evaluation Committee, delivered a speech titled "Being Sensitive to Emotions and Making Good Use of Reason". On behalf of the university, he extended his warm congratulations to the graduates who have successfully completed their studies at the undergraduate level, and their families and friends. He also expressed sincere gratitude to the teachers for their dedicated guidance and mentorship.
Wang Xiqin said that the college years of the graduating class of 2023 were quite special. Everyone experienced important milestones such as the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. The unprecedented great changes and a once-in-a-century pandemic intertwined and overlapped, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum information accelerated breakthroughs, making the world full of uncertainty. The world calls for reason and order. Combining the dialectical relationship between emotions and rationality, Wang hopes that students will learn to be sensitive to emotions, make good use of reason, and handle their relationships with themselves, others and nature.
Wang also noted logic is the foundation of clarity. Rationality based on logic is the filter, stabilizer, and transformer of emotions, which enables people to discover positive factors in negative emotions and transform them into the driving force for recovery, ultimately reaching a state of clarity. He hopes that students can master the thinking method of seeking truth from facts, use rationality to balance emotions, reconcile with emotions, analyze themselves more thoroughly, understand themselves more clearly, accurately grasp their own strengths, recognize their own shortcomings with composure, avoid feelings of inferiority and anxiety, and steer clear of arrogance and paranoia, always maintaining a strong will and a high spirit.
Wang Xiqin emphasized that benefiting others is the source of happiness. To dissolve the negative emotions caused by excessive focus on personal interests, one must step out of the "benefiting self" and make good use of the great wisdom of "benefiting others". Furthermore, one must unify personal interests with the fundamental interests of the broadest people and pursue greater happiness. He inspired the graduates with the life story of Zhao Jiahe, the "charcoal professor" at Tsinghua University, urging them to uphold the supremacy of the people, hold "the top priorities of the country" in their hearts, take one step forward in the face of responsibility, and step back in the face of interests, and shine with youth in the cause of serving the country and the people.
Wang Xiqin said that life is the mother of meaning. Life is a miracle of nature and life itself has meaning. Despite the development of human science and technology, we have yet to discover any extraterrestrial life. Cherishing and caring for the earth, respecting and treating life is the rational choice of humanity. He hopes that the graduates will uphold the supremacy of life, revere the greatness of life, respect the laws of nature, establish a sense of community of life for humanity and nature, expand the scope of life and achieve greater meaning in life.
“You are the first batch of Tsinghua undergraduates after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, born at the right time and bearing heavy responsibilities,” he said. Wang expressed his hope that the undergraduates would be sensitive to emotions, make good use of rationality, and devote themselves to the active pursuit of building a socialist modern country with firm confidence, full enthusiasm, and a proactive attitude, and achieve a wonderful life in the magnificent journey of advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.
Alumna Wang Jin, who graduated from Tsinghua School of Materials Science and Engineering and chief scientist of ENER Flow company, said that one must remember where they came from in order to know where they are going. She hoped that everyone would remember the University motto of “Self-discipline and Social Commitment,” integrate oneself into the greater good of the country, and take on the responsibility of building a strong nation and national rejuvenation."
Zheng Mingyu from Tsinghua Qiuzhen College, as the representative of undergraduate graduates, gave a speech titled "Surging Forward Like a River". He expressed that his understanding of the beauty of mathematics deepened during his time as a Tsinghua student. The beauty of mathematics contains the pursuit of serving the country with science and technology and the expectation of national rejuvenation, as well as the romance of pursuing world-class success and the longing to lead the world trend. “After four years at Tsinghua, we have definitely become the fresh water of the river, surging and tumbling on our own life paths, becoming the splendid waves in the tide of the national rejuvenation era!" said Zheng Mingyu.
Following the conclusion of the ceremony, University leaders proceeded to the Gymnasium to continue with the degree-awarding ceremony. The graduation ceremony was broadcast live in both Chinese and English on the "Rain Classroom" platform, enabling graduates who were not physically present on campus and their family members to attend online.
Editors: John Paul, Li Han
