On June 16^th 2017, the SUSTech Education Foundation received a donation of RMB 20 million from the Shenzhen Charity Association and the Broad Link Group, the largest received this year. The funds will be assigned to the creation of the university’s Experimental Education Group “HelloKongzi Education Fund”.

SUSTech Chairperson Guo Yurong receives the donation on behalf of the SUSTech Education Foundation

The ceremony started at 9am in the SUSTech Executive Building‘s Room 401. Former vice chairman of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, Shenzhen Municipal Charity Association Yao Xinyao, Nanshan District CPPCC Vice Chairman, District Education Bureau Liu Genping, Shenzhen Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee, Shenzhen Charity Executive Vice President and Secretary General Fang Tao, Broad Link Group Chairman of the Board of Directors Lin Youwu, Chairman of Broad Link Group Zhang Pengli, University Council Chairperson and Director of the Education Foundation Guo Yurong, SUSTech President and Vice Chairman of the Education Foundation Chen Zhiyi, SUSTech Experimental Primary School Principal Zhang Fan, Tang Long Primary School President Ye Xiaoyong and City Charity, and various heads of departments from Broad Link Group and SUSTech participated were present at the ceremony which was chaired by Wu Chuanyue, Vice-President and Education Provost of SUSTech.

Fang Tao speech

Shenzhen Charity Executive Vice President and Secretary General Fang Tao said in her speech that the Shenzhen Charity Association is the largest chairty organization in the city and one of the leaders nationwide. The SUSTech Education Foundation was founded just a few years ago and has already achieved significant results. By developing close relationships with local charity organisations, the hope is to bring positive changes and guidelines to the developing educational systems.

Lin Youwu speech

Broad Link Group Chairman of the Board of Directors Lin Youwu followed with a speech that advocated education as the basis for ensuring the prosperity of the country. He said the Broad Link Group is willing to be a pioneer, and that the HelloKongzi Education Fund will contribute to the country’s education and cultural development. He hoped that the community will continue to invest and support the national education to improve people’s cultural literacy and revive the Chinese dream. He concluded by saying that he expects more people to join the ranks in the future, so that Chinese culture can shine throughout the world.

Speech by Liu Genping

District Education Bureau Liu Genping then addressed the audience at the donation ceremony. He proposed a “three high-speed rail” metaphor in regards to education, explaining that 3 core elements are central: working with industry, learning foreign language and the importance of subsidiary undertakings, and hoped that by focusing on the first two, the third will be able to flourish naturally. He believes that SUSTech can explore in this area and contribute to the community, to build quality education and pledging his full support for the new organisation, he wished HelloKongzi Education Fund success.

Guo Yurong’s speech

SUSTech Chairperson Guo Yurong also delivered a speech, during which she thanked the Broad Link Group and the Shenzhen Charity for their generous donation. She said that this is the first donation received for the university’s experimental education group, marking a major step forward for the project. The goal of the organisation is to establish within China a world-class university, and stimulate reforms in the higher education field, as well as innovation in the industrial one, and will provide better quality culture and education to the students. She showed SUSTech’s solid history of fund usage, saying it will go into delivering a better university and better education for the students and for the community, and she said she hoped that the regional actors would continue to support SUSTech.

In 2016, SUSTech signed partnerships with industrial and commercial organisations worth close to 260 million yuan, and received donations worth a total of 400 million yuan. Donations have been used for the construction of the university, talent development, construction of the campus infrastructure and other key elements.

HelloKongzi is the cultural branch of the Shenzhen-based Broad Link Group. In 2014, Broad Link launched the “cultural reengineering” program to promote the export of Chinese culture through the use of innovative means and independent intellectual property rights of the brand. The goal is to explain to the world the traditional national culture, and in 2014 “HelloKongzi global cultural tour” started. Currently present in Taiwan, Pakistan, the United States and Canada, it will continue around the world to showcase Chinese traditional culture and help people gain a better understanding of it.

About Broad Link Group:

Shenzhen Broad Link Group Co., Ltd. (“Broad Link Group”) was established in March 1997, formerly known as “Shenzhen Creative Industry Development Co., Ltd.” and registered with a capital of 100 million yuan. After 20 years, it has developed into a conglomerate of more than 30 subsidiaries in industries like real estate, culture, hospitality, education, finance, property management and various others. In the cultural industry, it launched the HelloKongzi brand, in the area of education the “Shenzhen HelloKongzi Kindergarten” with a unique brand image, and now the group wants to expand Chinese traditional culture into the scientific and technological field. The use of various forms of innovative expression aims to make children’s approach easier to understand the country’s traditional culture.

Text: Student News Agency Wu Zhixing

Photo: Wu Bingzhen

Edited by: Jeremy Welburn