FULL TEXT : English translation of President President Tony F. Chan’s speech
Distinguished leaders, guests, parents, graduates and professors,
Today, I feel much honored to have the opportunity to attend your graduation ceremony. Just as the host introduced, my relationship with SUSTech dates back to years ago. You are the first batch of graduates after the Ministry of Education officially approved the founding of SUSTech in 2012. Therefore, today is a milestone for both you and the university. And I think you should engrave this ceremony on your mind.
SUSTech was built as a pioneering, innovative and brave university, whose establishment drew the attention of the field of education worldwide, including Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I think not only our university but you, graduates of today, should be pioneering, innovative and brave. Many people believe the reputation of a university influences directly the credibility of its graduates. In other words, one who graduates from a well-known university tends to have a good reputation. Of course, it is true. However, in my mind, the reverse also has the same importance. That is, the long-term reputation of a university depends on the future development of its graduates. Subsequently, in your upcoming career and life, you should fight for the reputation of your alma mater, which, I think, is the most important thing.
The graduation ceremony held today is called “commencement” in America. What does this word mean? It means “beginning”. How come “graduation” is called “beginning”? Shouldn’t it be “ending”? You will not come back to this university, will you? “Beginning” here means the start of your career and life after today. I think this concept is very important. No one can tell you what your future will be like and how the world will develop, including teachers and leaders present. They don’t know what your future will be. In the future, you will certainly meet a lot of challenges, which we cannot tell, because we don’t know them either. At the same time, however, there will be many opportunities, which we cannot tell you either. What I think is important is to inspire you, so you must explore with your pioneering, innovative and brave spirit until you succeed.
This year is the 5th year since SUSTech was established. Two weeks ago saw the 25th anniversary of HKUST. It seems that HKUST is five times older than SUSTech. However, when compared with the age of universities worldwide, both of us are very young. In the past 25 years, we have met many challenges. Thus, I want to share with you the challenges and opportunities we met in this occasion.
It safe to say the two universities are old brothers, for both of us are “University of Science and Technology”. There is “UST” in our English names. Therefore, our experience can help SUSTech as well as the students. Here I have three points to make:
First, both the environment within and beyond a university is very important to the development of a university and its students. HKUST was established in 1991. Why it was established at that time? Because we knew Hong Kong was to return to China soon. China opened up in 1980s, when the manufacturing industry of Hong Kong would be transferred to Chinese mainland, that is, Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta. All this proved to be true. Now there are almost no manufacturing industry in Hong Kong. Back then, the Hong Kong leaders and government thought the economy of Hong Kong could not be based on cheap labors. Instead, Hong Kong should be a knowledge trailblazer and needed to build a research-based university of science, technology and commerce, namely HKUST. They had an alternative, i.e., to embed this concept to existing universities then. However, they thought such an innovative university could not be placed in those universities. So they built a new one: HKUST.
Many visitors to our university often ask in the first place what the secret of our success is. I replied, “I don’t know. I wasn’t there at that time”. But objectively speaking, the mainly reason lies in our initial orientation. This is important. We are not a comprehensive university. Science, technology and commerce are our focuses. We don’t have such things as medical school or law school. Besides, we are determined to draw international talents, including professors and students. Furthermore, we have a free academic atmosphere, which is also very important. Otherwise, you cannot attract top talents. In addition, we have made use of Hong Kong’s advantages. What are they? With a small population, Kong Hong is an international city with no difficulty in speaking English. It also has sophisticated laws and low tax. All these advantages can help our university to draw talents. It is an open secret — the environment is significant.
The big environment for today’s SUSTech, of course, is not the same as that of HKUST 25 years ago. Now SUSTech has a better environment. Why? First, China is the second biggest economy in the world now and Shenzhen is a leading city. Many people believe Shenzhen is China’s Silicon Valley. Some American ventures also believe so. Shenzhen is leading technology innovation in China, even in the world. Moreover, the city has drawn many talents from all parts of China here. As far as I know, Shenzhen is located in Guangdong, where the main language is Mandarin, not Cantonese. This is quite similar to the Silicon Valley of America, where most of the people are not local residents but migrants from all parts of America and the world. That’s an advantage of Shenzhen.
Another thing is also very important. Many enterprises of technology innovation headquarter in Shenzhen, like Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, DJI, BYD and many more. So, you as graduates must make full use of this big environment just as HKUST made use of the advantages of Hong Kong 25 years ago.
The second point I want to talk about is that every innovation is sure to meet many challenges. What challenges HKUST faced? When Hong Kong conceived to build such a university 30 years ago, many people doubted it. They believed it was impossible to build a research-based and world-accepted university in Hong Kong, China or Asia, because it was unprecedented. Yet some other people thought it was possible. Maybe today’s HKUST also has the same challenge. At that time, just like you, we didn’t have alumni. All the heads and CEOs in big institutions were not our graduates. In addition, no parents of our students graduated from HKUST. In many famous universities, parents of their students also graduated from there. We had low social impact and visibility. So you can imagine how difficult it was to establish HKUST under such circumstances. Luckily, many founding professors and leaders of the university had been confident in their belief and aspiration. They thought the orientation and aspiration were correct. Thanks to their fighting against those challenges all the time, the university achieved some success. I may not be so familiar with SUSTech. I have been here twice. The first time I came here was 2010, when President Zhu was in place. At that time, SUSTech didn’t have a campus yet and I remember the office of President Zhu was in a building of the Shenzhen Municipal Government. But, just as I said, you certainly have the same challenges that HKUST faced. Many people may doubt you. You must be confident and perseverant in you belief and aspiration like HKUST, and then you can obtain long-term achievements. That’s our experience.
The third point is opportunity. When HKUST was established, it was extremely hard to draw international talents. We knew Hong Kong was to return to China in 1997. The oversea talents were not sure about the effect of this change. On the 25th anniversary of HKUST, some of those founding professors and leaders went back to deliver speeches. When asked why they came back despite the uncertain environment at that time, they answered like this: they had a dream. It was because of the big environment that nurtured both challenges and opportunities that prompted them to build HKUST. We share the same dream with them. A success with no challenges cannot make one feel successful. That’s very important, I think. Hence, you must keep your pioneering spirit just like us. Younger generations have their advantages. Free from the burden of history, they are more flexible and brave. These are your advantages. Both the university and the students must make use of them.
Last but not least, since you are the first batch of graduates after the Ministry of Education officially approved the founding of SUSTech in 2012, you can imagine what you will be 10 or even 20 years later. Let me share with you our situation, our first batch of students graduated 21 years ago, many of whom came back to attend the ceremony for the 25th anniversary. The oldest of our undergraduates is around 40 years old, which is very young, but he has already made some achievements in his career. DJI, which you may have heard of, specializes in developing UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) in Shenzhen. Its founder Wangtao obtained both Bachelor and Master’s degree in our university. He graduated just 10 years ago. Besides, one of our doctors Liao Jiajun founded Perception Digital after graduation, which focused on electronics. It developed from a company listed in Hong Kong GEM (Growth Enterprise Market) into one listed in the Main Board. Now it is doing well. Xiao Guowei manages a company called APT Electronics Co., Limited in Nansha, doing LED related businesses. Its market value reaches several billion RMB. If you have been to Hongkong, you may know one of our alumni dealing with medical bird’s nest. His company is called HK JEBN Limited. Recently, he has donated money to our university. When you succeed 10 or 20 years later, remember to retribute to your alma mater.
As I just said, your majors do not necessarily determine the direction of your future development. Opportunities are numerous. Never confine yourselves to your majors. The education you have received should prepare you well enough to grasp any opportunity in your coming life. Therefore, wish you a successful career and life.
Thank you all!
