News
| Review of online salon “Tongji Alumni in Germany” |
| Time：2020-11-18 |
| On the evening of October 30, 2020, the online salon "Tongji Alumni in Germany", which was the fifth activity of the series of "The Centennial Stories of Tongji and Germany", was successfully held, attracting nearly a hundred teachers and students to participate. The atmosphere of the online "venue" was active and the discussion and exchanges were lively. We invited three speakers for this online salon, namely, Professor Yu Andong, the consultant professor of Tongji University and the honorary president of the German Tongji Alumni Association, Professor Ding Yongjian, the current president of the German Tongji Alumni Association and the vice chairman of the German Chinese Professors Association and Mr. Guan Wenlin, Secretary General of the German Tongji Alumni Association and President of the Sino-German School of Engineering of Tongji University. Professor Li Keping, director of the Sino-German Transportation Research Center of Tongji University and a doctoral supervisor of the Department of Transportation Engineering (Traffic Information Engineering and Control), was invited to be the host of this salon. At the beginning of the online salon, Professor Li Keping gave a brief and vivid introduction to the historical origins of Tongji's exchanges with Germany, the Tongji University Alumni Association in Germany and the German Tongji Alumni Association, and introduced three keynote speakers to the teachers and students. Next, Professor Yu Andong introduced the process of the establishment and development of the German Tongji Alumni Association to everyone complete with text and pictures. Many precious old photos displayed were the first time that they were made public. At the end of the last century, with the joint effort of Tongji alumni in Germany, the German Tongji Alumni Association was established in Heidelberg, which was the first alumni association of Chinese university in Germany. After the establishment of the alumni association, Tongji alumni in and many Chinese in Germany gathered together and held a variety of activities in various parts of Germany. It gradually became a brand of Chinese in Germany and a business card of Tongji University in Europe.  Subsequently, Professor Ding Yongjian made a summary review of the activities and achievements of the Alumni Association in recent years with the theme of "Unite the Tongji alumni in Germany to create a better future for China and Germany". Tongji has established seven local alumni associations in Germany and the number of registered Tongji alumni has reached more than 1,000. They have contributed to the promotion of exchanges and cooperation between Tongji and Germany in various industries.
  Mr. Guan Wenlin led everyone to review the various measures taken by Tongji alumni in Germany to fight against the 2019-nCoV epidemic: in the early stage of the epidemic, the alumni association purchased anti-epidemic materials abroad to support Wuhan. Later, it cooperated with the Alumni Association of Tongji University to purchase masks in China to support German hospitals and alumni and to provide information sharing and mutual assistance, contributing to the fight against the epidemic in China and Germany. He also introduced the development of young alumni of Tongji in Germany and the alumni of Sino-German Engineering Institute and Sino-German Institute.
  Finally, there was a one-hour interactive session. Alumni, teachers and students from all over the country actively interacted around many topics, such as "German University rankings", "the evaluation system for the employment of professors in German Universities", "the feelings and experiences of study in Germany", "Chinese people’s lives in Germany" and so on. In particular, the topic of "how to tell the stories of Tongji and China well in Germany" was discussed in depth. Several guests, combining with their own experiences in Germany, shared, communicated and interacted with each other in terms of equality and respect, enhanced understanding, cultural exchanges, mutual learning and some other aspects. Some other online teachers and students also put forward their own suggestions. During the exchange, everyone expressed their good wishes to build a bridge for cooperation and exchange between Tongji and Germany and to promote innovative cooperation between them. The online salon lasted nearly 3 hours and it came to a successful conclusion in the enthusiastic exchanges between participating teachers, students and alumni. Text: Qiu Wenyun
Pictures: German Library of Tongji University
Translation: Ma Raner
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