On the afternoon of September 30, 2017, Xiamen University held a ceremony to recognize a number of faculty members and students for their service for the BRICS Xiamen Summit. CFLC faculty members winning recognition included Associate Professors Lian Zheyu andHu Yonghong, Assistant Professors Yu Lihang and Li Chunyu, and staff members Yue Wuyang and Yang Shenglan. A total of 128 CFLC studentswere honored as “outstanding volunteers”.
Xiamen hosted the 9th BRICS Summit from September 3 to September 5. The Summit was the largest and most prestigious international event that Xiamen had ever hosted. In anticipation of the event, in November 2016, CFLC recruited a number of student volunteers and provided them with training in international protocol.
On August 30, 2017, Professor Zhang Longhai, Dean of CFLC, was interviewed by journalists from the China Global Television Network (CGTN) who had arrived in Xiamen to cover the summit. During the interview, Prof. Zhang introduced Xiamen University’s core spirits, campus culture, and academic strengths. Five CFLC students were also interviewed. They talked about their training for the summit and their lives at Xiamen University. On September 5, Prof. Zhang appeared in the CGTN-The World Today program, introducing Gulangyu Islet’s history and cultural heritage to a global audience.
On the eve of the Summit, CFLC Vice Dean Prof. Xu Qi was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency. She shared the story behind the Statue of Lermontov on the campus of Xiamen University and introduced the academic exchange programs with Russian universities.
Following a rigorous screening process, a total of 182 students from CFLC’s six foreign language programs were selected as volunteers for the BRICS Summit. The first group consisted of 128 students, including 89 undergraduates and 39 graduate students and accounting for 11% of Xiamen University’s volunteers for the Summit. The second group comprised 54 students.
The student volunteers started training three months before the Summit. They were divided into various groups, including VIP reception, conference registration, immigration translation and logistics support, protocols, cultural shows, the Business Forum, banquets, information service, and the gala show at XMU’s Jiannan Auditorium. Many of the students considered their service for the summit to be an invaluable learning experience, and all of them were proud of their contributions to the Summit.
The CFLC faculty also played an indispensable role in the preparations for the Summit by providing high-quality translations. From August 3 to September 2, under the leadership of Dean Zhang Longhai, CFLC faculty members Ji Yuhua, Li Qionghua, Lian Zheyu, Chang Peng, Su Yuxiao and Hu Yonghong together translated documents with more than 60,000 Chinese characters into English for the Summit and sideline events. Two other faculty members, Deng Yi and Zhao Xiao, both played a role in the translation of information on the official website of the BRICS Summit. Their high-quality translations, delivered under a tight schedule, contributed to the success of the Summit.
Four other CFLC faculty members, including Zhu Lihang, Zhu Meilin, Shen Shu and Li Chunyu, served as liaison officers for the Summit’s VIP reception and spouse program.
CFLC faculty and students’ strong sense of responsibility and dedication to their jobs earned them the praise of the Summit organizers and participants. |
