Factory of Nation's Leaders
- Source: The Global Times
- [01:22 April 27 2009]
- Comments
Bright artistic and cultural clubs
Answering questions about whether graduates in science and engineering have the human qualities to become leaders of a nation, many alumni recalled their colorful activities in artistic and cultural clubs on campus.
A total of 100 students were selected from different departments to join the artistic, cultural and physical exercise clubs. Ma Guoxin, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a major of architecture, was also a saxophone player at university. He remembered clearly Hu Jintao belonged to the dance team and lived not far from his room.
“Most of the students started developing their artistic interests from scratch. Professional artistic teachers were invited to train us, and we were required to live in the same building, which was good for communication,” said Ma. Among Ma’s artistic group peers was Hua Jianmin of the choral group, now vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Enthusiastic, active and innocent was how Jin Dongming summarized the dance team. According to Jin, dance team leader and graduate of the radio electronic department, Hu Jintao’s courses all scored top “5” except one which scored a “4”. Hu was among the youngest, but one of the most active among his peers, said Xi Hequan.
The first three years (1959-61) in university were three famine years in China. However, the warmth of collectivism and the colorful extra-curricular activities proved of great spiritual help in conquering the extreme material disadvantage.
Physical education was also popular among students and served a strong patriotic purpose. Many authors wrote about the slogan initiated by Jiang: “Every Tsinghua graduate shall stay healthy and work for the motherland for at least 50 years.”
The slogan inspired students to exercise on campus and study hard.
“I am still not a qualified Tsinghua alumnus. I’ve worked for the country for 43 years, and I still have seven more years to work before meeting Jiang’s requirement,” said Wang Xinfeng, a graduate of the electronic engineering department.