Dear Class of 2022:

Good evening!

Time flies and another graduation ceremony comes. The past few years have been particularly difficult for all of us, as we have fought the pandemic together in mutual understanding and support. Finally, the solemn moment of the crowning ceremony has come. Many people have said that, the Class of 2022, spending three years of your university life in the pandemic, has wasted your time. However, I have a completely opposite opinion. I think you have learnt and experienced more than any other students because of the pandemic. Because of its suddenness, we know what it means to be sharing and united; because of its ferociousness, we know what it means to be brave and resolute; because of its repeatability, we know what it means to be precise and determined; because of its capriciousness, we know what it means to be steadfast and unswerving. As a teacher, I always want to give you a few words of advice when you graduate, including sincere wishes for your youth and unlimited expectations for your future. In fact, the pandemic has taught us enough: sharing a common destiny and uniting our country together let us know that only a strong country can protect us and only we can make our country stronger. Isn’t it the cry of each and every of us? Being brave and resolute lets us know that the true value of life lies in dedication. Hasn’t the epidemic prevention and control improved our sense of responsibility? Being precise and determined lets us know that sturdy implementation and strict discipline is the basis of victory. Hasn’t the collective living life strengthened our sense of rules? Being steadfast and unswerving lets us know that life is more important than anything else and that love is genuine for all of us. Isn’t it the simplest yet the most profound truth we have learnt from the pandemic? We have learnt to be brave, to be bold, to be clever, to accomplish our mission with our lives, and to help our people with our love. With the strong spirit, the capacity to take responsibility, and the love for the entire society, how can your youth not be colourful? How can your future not be glorious? “If our country is in trouble, you will be the vanguard.” Suffering is a kind of training. Adversity is a kind of practice. Those who can survive hardships will eventually have an undefeated life. Those who are self-reliant will eventually spread their wings and fly to a bright future!

At this time, I was reminded of Li Ying, a poet I read about when I was young. Li Ying was a student of Peking University. In the 1940s, he participated in the underground activities led by our party. After the liberation of Beijing, he left school to go to the battlefields of Korea. In 1980, at the beginning of the reform and opening up, Li Ying wrote a modern poetry I am Proud because I am a Tree. There are a few lines in the poetry, which I would like to share with you:

I am part of the vast field, part of nature, / I and beauty are one, indivisible; / I belong to the people, to history, / I long for the whole world / to be our common home!

With few words, the poem shows a simple, sincere and, natural style. The poet blended himself into the nature, into the people, and into the history. He showed spiritual confidence in feeling beauty, shaping beauty, and spreading beauty. In his poetry, the poet expressed a unique feeling for people and a sense of literary and art shared by communists, as well as an aesthetic expectation shared by literary and art workers. Li Ying has spent his life learning that the best literary and art works belong to the people. I would like to start today’s “The Last Lecture” with the theme “Youth to the Future and Ode for the Era and the People” to encourage you.

All of you have spent more than ten years studying, with your youth being ignited again and again. Each time of ignition lights up the future and the dream. I believe that your studying experience in NUA is the most memorable, as it records the pursuing of your dream. There must be students who determine to be the leader in the industry, and students who wish to give back to their parents and give them a better life. All of these are the true feelings of your age. However, I want to say that the realisation of youthful aspirations cannot be isolated from the society, let alone to be isolated from the development of our country and people’s happiness. On this point, I would like to quote a letter:

You are living in a great time and should shoulder the responsibilities. I hope that all university graduates across China will aim for the highest, be down-to-the-earth, be brave when facing difficulties and obstacles, take up the mission of the times, integrate their personal aspirations into the cause of the Party and the nation, and make more contributions to the Party, to our nation, and to the people.

This is from the letter written by President Xi Jinping to the graduates of China University of Petroleum-Beijing at Karamay on 7th July, 2020. President Xi firstly wrote “you are living in a great time and should shoulder the responsibilities.” This expression is not only for the students at CUP but also for you. You are all living in such a great era. It does mean that you have not faced ups and downs. Isn’t the past three years of pandemic the ups and downs for our country’s development? However, the ups and downs are an opportunity for the social development. We can use these opportunities to innovate our work. The ups and downs are also the touchstone for our country’s development. During the pandemic, we have seen the strength and efficiency of the Party and our country, and have observed the increased awareness and consciousness of the people.

President Xi secondly wrote “Be brave when facing difficulties and obstacles, take up the mission of the times”. In fact, our Party and our country have experienced many hardships and dangers in the way from the starting point of the New Democratic Revolution, the May Fourth Movement. Fang Zhimin, the martyr, wrote a famous article, Lovely China, while he was in the Kuomintang’s prison. In this article, he traced back his journey to revolution. He had fantasised about realising his dream solely based on personal struggle, but the cold reality told him that it was impossible. In a country where poverty and weakness prevailed and where evil forces and imperialism were rampant, there was no way for young people to solely rely on personal struggle. Therefore, Fang Zhimin chose to join the revolutionary cause led by the Party and irrigated his dreams with his own life. When he was 25, he joined the party. When he was 29, he started the uprising and established the 10th Army of the China’s Workers and Peasant’s Red Army. When he was 36, he sacrificed his life. Fang Zhimin devoted his youth and life to “be brave when facing difficulties and obstacles and take up the mission of the times”. He dedicated his youth to his era and to the lovely China. He dedicated his youth to the future and to us today. Dear students, we should also dedicate our youth to the era, to the future, and moreover, to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

Students from NUA should not only have aesthetic ideas of “Grandeur, brevity, profundity, and beauty”, but also have the ambition to serve our country by dedicating youth and pledging our lives to our country. As we all know, one of NUA’s mottoes is “endless change”, which exactly points to our philosophy of schooling: open and advance with time. It also points to the spirit of NUAers: to breath with the country, to share the fate with the nation, and to connect with the people. At the beginning of today’s ceremony, the national anthem, March of the Volunteers, was played. When this song is played, every NUAer should be proud, because this song comes from the film, Sons and Daughters of the Storm. Both the director, XU Xingzhi, and the photographer, Wu Yinxian, graduated from NUA. Sons and Daughters of the Storm encouraged hundreds and thousands of Chinese people’s patriotism. The theme song of this film, March of the Volunteers, was also a rallying cry for the liberation of China. When we hear this song, we should not only be proud of the artistic creation of NUAers, but also be ambitious to serve our country by learning from our forefathers!

I would like to tell you stories of two more NUAers. The first one is about Huang Zhen. He was enrolled in Shanghai College of Fine Arts at the age of 16, joined the Red Army at the age of 22, and joined in the Long March at the age of 25. After the liberation, he became one of the first senior diplomats of our country. Chairman Mao complimented him as “being able to wield both the pen and the gun”. Deng Xiaoping praised him as “a general who always succeeded in his missions”. In 1934, to celebrate the Second National Congress of Chinese Soviet, Huang Zhen created a huge painting entitled Crushing the Enemy’s Siege, which was praised by Chairman Mao and the delegates. Most notably, during the Long March, he created a large number of touching and inspiring sketches and cartoons. In 1934, his artworks were published in an art collection Westward Cartoons, propagating to the whole country the great revolutionary experience of the Long March.

The second story I would like to tell is about Chen Jinzhang. He was enrolled in Shanghai College of Fine Arts at the age. At the age of 27, he accepted the mission from our Party and went to Shaanxi to start underground work, during which he was arrested by the enemy. He was extremely tough in prison and was rescued by our Party. In 1935, when the Fourth Red Army entered Sichuan, Chen Jinzhang asked his eleven family members to join the revolution and the Long March. At the end of the Long March, Chen Jinzhang and nine members of his family died during the march, with only one sister following the troops to the north of Shaanxi. Chen Jinzhanng was an outstanding alumnus from NUA. From some of his left painting, we can tell that they are of a very high standard. Chen Jinzhang not only received his artistic inspiration and training from NUA, but was also educated and nurtured by the Party, and eventually embarked on the revolutionary path without a second thought.

The bronze statue of Huang Zhen is standing on the beautiful boulevard at the west gate of NUA. The art works of Chen Jinzhang are collected in his hometown in Shaanxi. I wish that all of you can visit the bronze statue of Huang Zhen again before leaving the university. I wish that all of you would have the chance to visit the museum in Shannxi after leaving the university. I wish that all of you can send the respect and admiration from us. They have lived an extraordinary youth and have shown the constantly changing red spirit of NUAers. On 10th of May, in his speech at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Youth League of China, President Xi Jinping said:” Times are different, but youth is always the same.” Today’s NUAers have the responsibility to continue the red blood of our forefathers and to pass on the red spirit of the martyrs!

President Xi Jinping also asked us to integrate our personal ideals into the cause of the Party and the country. I think it means that NUA should nurture people’s artists. NUA graduates should integrate their artistic ideals into the cause of the Party and the country, and sing for the time and for the people!

So how could we sing for the time and for the people? You probably often struggle with what and how to create. Eighty years ago, in the Forum of Art and Literature in Yan'an, Chairman Mao said that literary and art should serve the people and be integrated with the people, which encouraged generations of literary and art workers. President Xi Jinping earnestly taught us, “There is an inexhaustible and abundant source of literature and art from the people.” This is the people’s view of art that is inherited from the same lineage. I hope that you can bear this in mind, which would be a far-sighted and meaningful guide for your creations in the future.

Firstly, artistic creation should always adhere to people’s perspective. In this way, we can “grasp the pulse of the times and understand the voice of people”. I hope you can nurture the roots of art in the deep soil of the people. Li Ying’s poem has already told us: “I belong to the people and to the history.” Li Ying has followed the Party’s correct literary path all his life, loving the people and writing about them. Therefore, he never struggled with what to create. If you have time, you can read the 14 volumes of Li Ying’s Collection of Poems and Articles. These poems and articles can give you a sense of presence. Even if they were written decades ago, they are still up-to-date. This is because his works are always connected with the pulse of the times and he truly understands the voice of the people.

Secondly, artistic production should always be full of people’s feelings. In this way, we can “integrate your personal aspirations into the cause of the people”. I hope you can build a great artistic soul while building a great China for the people. President Xi Jinping always says, we should “be based on China’s ground and tell China’s story well”. There is a key point in this sentence, which is “emotional and powerful”. We should have strong emotions towards the people and have deep understanding towards the society. In this way, we could create high-quality works. In his article Memories of Dashan, President Xi Jinping said Jia Dashan was an author “with a deep understanding and a unique perspective to the society and to the life”. Jia Dashan is a great model in “being based on China’s ground and telling China’s story well”.

Thirdly, artistic innovation should always hold to the value of people. In this way, we can “build a widely-acknowledged Chinese cultural image for the world and show a vivid and lively China”. I hope you can cultivate your artistic spirit from the perspective of the people. In order to tell China's story well, build a Chinese cultural image, and show a vivid and lively China, we must firstly “be based on China’s ground” and must understand the people. Chairman Mao once said: “If you don’t understand people’s language, how can you talk about creating literature and art?” He also said, wryly, “The bigger your words are, the fewer people would appreciate them. The fewer people would accept you.” Here, “people’s language” does not only refer to the language we speak. It also refers to the language of art, dancing, music, etc. You can take this as a litmus test. If you works can be elegant and popular, and can be appreciated by the people, they are successful China’s stories that can be promoted to the world and show a vivid and lively China.

Dear graduates, facing the future, let your youth sing for the people and sing for the times. Let your youth dance on people’s stage, draw people’s paintings, and be integrated into people’s voice.

Dear graduates, we are lucky to be Chinese and we should always follow our heart.

Dear graduates, with all the words I can think of, I wish you a lucky and happy future.

Dear graduates, when you enjoy the delightful future, always remember today’s wishes from us.

We look forward to hearing great news from you. We look forward to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party! We look forward to meeting you again here on December 8th to celebrate the 100th anniversary of NUA!

Dear graduates, NUA will always be here with you and your future will always be bright! May you all eventually become a bright star dedicated to building a better life for the people!