Empower the Growth and Lead the Era -- Speech by President & Academician Chen Xiaohong at the Opening Ceremony of 2019-class Freshmen
2019-09-23
Dear students, teachers and parents:
Good morning, everyone!
We welcome more than 5,100 freshmen (2019-class) to join us at the time of celebrating the 70thanniversary of the founding of New China and the 70thanniversary of the founding of the university. The thriving Hunan University of Technology and Business after the renaming is full of vigor and hope because of your joining! -
Here, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you on behalf of more than 20,000 teachers and students and more than 120,000 alumni! Congratulations on becoming the first freshmen of Hunan University of Technology and Business!
Let's start a new journey towards first-class and excellence together with the new and long-standing Hunan University of Technology and Business!
Let's wish the great motherland a happy birthday and prosperity!
Now, we are all dream-seekers of Hunan University of Technology and Business! We are a family, and we love you!
You will surely spend your youth and meet better yourself at Hunan University of Technology and Business! I have confirmed through your eyes that you are the people who the university hopes, and our university will be more wonderful and beautiful because of you!
Guys, we are in an era that is facing a "great change not seen in a century", namely, the deep development of economic globalization, world multipolarization, social informatization and cultural diversity. I, as a member of the training course for young and middle-aged cadres of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (China National School of Administration), had the honor to listen to the speech of General Secretary Xi on the opening ceremony of the training course On Sep. 3, which was very exciting and inspiring. General Secretary Xi said that: we will face more and more complex risks and challenges on the way forward; we should strengthen ideological, political and practical training, and have the ability to know the essence and development trend when facing the contradictory issues, risks and challenges; we should dare to make decisions on major issues of principle, face up to the difficulties in front of conflicts, stand up in front of crisis and difficulties, and resolutely fight in front of unhealthy practices and evil phenomena.
We are in an era where the "two centenary goals" are being achieved and will soon be achieved. We will create a bright future for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Born in a flourishing age, you will have a brilliant future! But you should fight for the realization of great dreams. At present, the Sino-US trade war initiated by America is still continuing and escalating, and the riots in Hong Kong backed by a few Western countries have not ceased. At the graduation ceremony, I hoped that the graduates would start off like soldiers to fight against the difficulties and win the victory. Now I want to say to you that: you also need to cultivate the will, spirit and quality of a soldier, and be ready to fight and win like a soldier!
You should study to build the motherland into the world's first technological and economic power!
Certainly, we should also see that with the wide application of mobile internet, big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, blockchain, 5G and so on, human beings will inevitably enter the smart era. The intelligent tools may do what you cannot do, and may do better than you. We can see that: AlphaGo can beat the top expert Ke Jie; artificial intelligence for healthcare can diagnose a disease accurately; financial artificial intelligence can realize the precise investment, etc. Lots of streamlined, stylized and data-intensive work is being replaced by intelligent technology, and the number of work replaced will continue to increase, so that the living environment and situation of people are undergoing great changes.
What kind of attitude should we take in this highly developed smart era?
Firstly, we should actively embrace the smart era.
Currently, knowledge technology is speeding up the iteration. Twenty or thirty years ago, the knowledge that people accepted may be used for a lifetime, but now it is far from the case, the person who is slack in learning will fall behind. In the face of new changes and new era, we cannot bury our heads in the sand like ostriches, but we must use intelligent technology scientifically to better understand the future and change our lives.
Secondly, we should seriously reflect on the smart era.
In contrast, the temptations and traps faced by human beings in the smart era are not decreasing, but multiplying. Many young people spend a lot of time and energy on mobile phones and computers generously, and become "phone freaks" and "fans of video games". Furthermore, it can be seen that people's character, needs, hobbies and consumption ability have been mastered and calculated invisibly, and even the world we see may have been carefully designed. If we are immersed in it, how much is left of our undivided freedom of thought?
Thirdly, we should transcend the smart era unremittingly.
At present, intelligent technology can summarize laws from numerous professional data, showing great power in understanding and solving professional problems, but it is still difficult to deal with problems in a cross domain and comprehensive way. Human beings can build up a comprehensive concept and system of the whole world and life based on the knowledge, which is the unique "wisdom" of human beings. Furthermore, creativity is a unique ability of human beings to create human civilization. In any era, human beings will continue to surpass due to their creativity, which is the "ability" of human beings. Moreover, the needs of emotional care, social interaction and spiritual communication will always exist and will be more valued in the process of building a community of common future, which is the "core" of human beings.
Therefore, what we need to do in the smart era is to stand on a higher mountain than intelligent technology, to do things that are difficult for intelligent technology to do, and even to guide the direction of intelligent technology. After all, there is no mountain higher than people in the world!
The youth growth is the most beautiful and precious. The foundation of the extraordinary career of life is often laid in the youth. What is the university? University is the place that still leads you to keep innovation and self-revolution in the era of subversive change, and the place that gives energy to your growth. How do you empower growth and what core competencies do you possess? Here, I have three suggestions:
First of all, we need to strive to empower growth with original intention and awaken our ideality.
Machines can have no ideal, but people have to. The most terrible thing for a person is to forget the original dream and gradually lose the goal of life. The biggest mistake in youth is not to combine the ideal with the fate of the country, but to sell ourselves as a commodity.
A life without goals can only be a vagrant life, and utilitarian individualism may make you a kite with broken wires. We should set up lofty ideals first and make unremitting efforts during the university life. Please remember that we must first act as human beings and then do things, and should not be refined and indifferent egoists; we should continue to learn the touching deeds and noble feelings of heroes and models such as Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian, Guo Yonghuai and Huang Xuhua, et al., and strive to carry forward the patriotic striving spirit of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite". Through the self-cultivation during the university period, we will shape a sound and mature personality, strive to form a heart of aiming for the highest and serving the country and the people, and a heart of self-discipline and social commitment, self-improvement, altruism without self and education for others, so that we can have kindheartedness, mind and energy, and stand tall in the world with the greater self!
Besides, you should also remember that: The only way to surpass yourself is to strive, and you can choose to strive in any environment. I remember Ren Zhengfei once said: "hardworking is the soul and theme of Huawei culture." It is because of hardworking and self-reliance that Huawei can constantly seize the commanding height and show the calm in the face of the US pressure. Recently, everyone has been saying "your life is in your hands". To master fate and win self, we must struggle! You may never know how excellent you can be if you do not have self-pressure, experience difficulties and struggle in the university. Therefore, you must form the habit of excellence, diligence and civilization in Hunan University of Technology and Business! You must make all efforts and fight hard to move yourself. I believe that you can be excellent and outstanding due to your diligence in Hunan University of Technology and Business!
Secondly, we should empower their growth through hard work and good thinking and stimulate their creativity.
Learning is necessary in any era, while diligent learning, lifelong learning and good thinking will be more important than ever before in the smart era. The important mission of university learning is to realize a qualitative leap in own innovation consciousness and ability. We should know that: we want to cultivate innovative, entrepreneurial and application-oriented industrial and commercial elites rather than "mobile HDD" with copy and paste functions only. Therefore, the ability to ask questions and ponder questions critically must be focused by us. We must always adhere to the problem orientation and demand pulling.
I hope you can adapt to the characteristics and laws of university study and life as soon as possible, aim at new learning directions, master new learning methods, desire, love and focus on learning, and regard truth as soul and life. I hope to see your thoughts in various forms of discipline competitions and academic activities, your input in rich and innovation and entrepreneurship practices, your research rooted in the practice, your articles written on the land of China, and your achievements displayed on the world stage! I believe that the changes given to you by learning must be bigger and more moving compared with the changes of intelligent machines!
I hope that you must always be with strong curiosity in learning, take the initiative to carry out research-based learning, combine theoretical and practical problems, macro and micro as well as qualitative and quantitative, master the comprehensive knowledge, fully integrate multi-disciplinary knowledge, and form the interdisciplinary innovation ability. Based on the combination of knowledge and thought, we can be learned and innovative talents! I hope that you can all expand the boundaries of life and find a broader space in the unknown new world during the improvement of innovation and creativity!
Thirdly, we should empower growth with rational self-discipline and improve self-control.
Of all species on earth, only human beings have spiritual life. People cannot think and live like machines, but cannot act by instinct like beasts.
For this, we need love, because we can focus and be warm and passionate due to love. Definitely, we also need to survive rationally. We must warn ourselves that we would be playboys without ambitions when we realize that we are becoming "phone freaks"; we must warn ourselves that youth is perishable and life is short when we are addicted to TV dramas and computer games; we must always know the right direction and keep the spirit of independence when we browse all kinds of celebrity gossip and see the temptation of consumption and pleasure!
The indulgence is the biggest sorrow of life. Closer to freedom is not self-indulgence, but self-control. You should start from every little bit of your daily life and strive to improve your self-control. You should never be in a state of mind of waiting, hiding and relying on others, never complain in hesitation, indolence and laziness, never cry when you meet difficulties or flinch when you get a little setback, never get lost in material enjoyment, never let the parochialism and impulsion control you. You should make your will as strong as steel, and make your life as bright as sunshine and as vast as the sea. "A Casual smile remains on my face regardless of raging storms"!
University is not for fun, and we cannot be muddling along. We must have the big pursuit, abstruse knowledge and rapid growth. At Hunan University of Technology and Business, which is all for students and for all students, and pursues the excellence and first-class, you should be out of the comfort zone, and not be a giant baby, parasite or spineless person. In the era of great change and development, you should persevere in a self-revolution of growth, and work hard in the field of youth, so that the youth can bloom to the fullest!
Hunan University of Technology and Business will develop the "technology and business" based on the "new technology + new business", create a first-class environment, gather first-class teachers, cultivate first-class talents, and make first-class contributions. Let's work together to write a new chapter that "Geniuses are all in CHU, especially in the Yuelu Academy"!
There are many colors of youth, one of which is called camouflage. When the passionate military training is coming to an end, I hope you will continue the good style of military training, and constantly cultivate your first-class physique, will and accomplishment, to spend your colorful university life!
I hope you can all better grow up in Hunan University of Technology and Business, and become a new generation who will always be dedicated to the motherland and lead the future!
Thank you all!
