On the night of September 25, 2015, to greet the Mid-autumn Day, a Zhiren lecture was given by our professor Zhang Xianke quite popular among students and invited by Zhiren College in the activity room. He, graduated in department of mathematics from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), ever worked in USTC for nearly 20 years and then moved to Tsinghua University in1993, who began to work in SUSTC in 2011 and was affectionately called the “Grandpa Xianke” by students.
Poetry and Life, With the Past Vanished Like Wind
Our mathematics professor Zhang Xianke, often in casual Crocs shoes and fashionable hair style, likes to write poems and could cite classics without thinking. He introduced first the history of our college and the source of its name and then shared his poems about the moon and sky he wrote in the past years, with some truths about life incorporated. He expressed his sincere hope in spreading the “positive energy” through the verse of “spreading across the order of the God of sun to greet the coming of spring even if sacrificing itself”; he delivered the spirit of endless struggle to overcome difficulties with the verse that “the river under the shining of the moon will be quite shimmering after stepping over the iron gate even if it is so tall and rugged”……..Finally, he gave a conclusion on life skillfully with his mathematical knowledge, “Life is a ray when we are young, with a lot of time for use; while it is a line segment, with that the end could be seen even if there is still a long way; life is a curved line segment when we are old, going down every day while going up in the past.” He also reminded students to seize the time to learn. The reason that young people are better than many middle-aged and aged people in some aspects is that the middle-aged ones are struggling before the end of life while the aged ones are going down every day. So he hoped all the students could learn more when young with much time for use, which was truly acknowledged by students.
The Melodious Sound of Flute, Spreading All over the Room
After the talk about poetry and life, he took out a clarinet to play music for students. He played the Moonlight Serenade first and then Tibetan Plateau with two clarinets respectively in low tone and high tone. His excellent performance won the warm applause of students.
Watch Overhead to Create Brilliance Together
In the subsequent interaction between him and students, the topics vary from life, learning to philosophy and so on. He answered one by one the questions raised by students.
After hearing that some freshmen said it is quite difficult in learning linear algebra, he immediately acknowledged this and then took some situations happened on the mathematician Cauchy as the examples. But he told them soon that it is also quite simple in fact. The suggestion he gave is to improve the sensitivity to numbers and well understand each mathematical concept and then adjust the attitude in learning it to treat it as a good friend.
One student said the courses in some other universities are relatively easy to learn, for this, he responded that, “this is just the good opportunity for you to learn more.” He also said that the good but unique opportunity could be seized in the future if you learn more now than others.
Before the ending of the lecture, he also suggested students to strive to acquire more professional knowledge now and meanwhile improve the scientific literacy and moral level during the gradually thorough learning.
