On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, supported by the West African Research Center and the School of International Education, the School of Public Management took this as an opportunity to organize around 40 international students in UESTC and outside to visit the museum community of Deng Xiaoping’s Former Residence located in Guang’an, Sichuan Province. Some teachers and student volunteers from the School of Public Management, West African Research Center and the School of International Education also joined this activity.
Under the guidance of student volunteers, international students got into the Museum Community of Deng Xiaoping’s Former Residence. They visited the Museum of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence and the Museum of Deng Xiaoping’s Life. Through the museums, they would learn about the life stories of the great man in China. At the Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence Museum, international students toured the Deng Xiaoping’s restored office and residence as well as historic materials exhibition hall, sensed Deng Xiaoping’s absolutely pure life, identified with his great personality charm, and admired his magnificent life experience; at the Deng Xiaoping’s Life Museum, international students were in a visit to four units: “Out of Guang’an”, “Military Career”, “Hard Exploration”, and “Special Years”, and they also unfeignedly felt admiration and praise for Deng Xiaoping's outstanding contribution to the new-democratic revolution, national independence, socialist construction and reform and opening up in China. International students carefully looked into the billboards of various character introductions and respectfully listened to the English explanation of student volunteers during their visit. Besides, they even more actively interacted with the museum staff and the local people who came to visit, learnt the relevant Chinese cultural knowledge, and enthusiastically accepted the invitation of the local people to take pictures.
This visit made a strong impression on the international students. They said that visiting Deng Xiaoping's former residence museum community made them more clearly aware of the history of China's revolution and development, and they were shocked by the magnificent and unusual life of Deng Xiaoping. Andre Constantino, the international student of 2017, also took notes of knowledge points about Chinese history and culture in notebooks in the course of his visit, and he said “One of my favorite Deng Xiaoping’s sayings is ‘I am the son of the Chinese people. I love my motherland and people affectionately.’ He devoted himself to the motherland and served the people, thus this kind of spirit is worth every student’s admiration and contemplation. We should treasure our opportunities in China, study hard and strive for making contributions to our country and people.
The event of visiting Deng Xiaoping’s Former Residence museum community “The 40th anniversary of reform and opening up·The Red Cultural Tour in China” is an important part of international students theme of education by the School of Public Management, also an important initiative for the School to creatively work on ideological and political education of international students. Next, the School will fully deploy related resources which correspond to the theme of 40th anniversary of reform and opening up and “The 19th National Congress of CPC”, international students writings competition on the theme of “My Impression of China” and a series of diverse and colorful international students education activities such as international students' Chinese singing competition, and propel the training of international talents in the School to a new level.
