Shanghai Fudan
University celebrated its centennial anniversary Saturday and
Chinese President Hu Jintao sent a letter to express his
congratulation to the university.
The celebration attracted about 5,000 people from all walks of
life, including the presidents of about 100 world prestigious
colleges and universities from home and abroad.
Fudan University is the first university set up by the Chinese
people independently and it has shared the same fate along with
China in the past century, Hu said in his letter.
The university has become more influential in the past century
especially after the founding of the new China in 1949 and it has
cultivated a lot of outstanding intellectuals for the country, Hu
said.
Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National
People's Congress (NPC), attended the ceremony and made a speech.
The course of great changes in Fudan reveals that a university's
fate is closely related with a country's fate, said Wu at the
ceremony. The development of the country is a precondition for the
university's development, while the development of the universities
is also an important support to the development of the country, he
said.
"We are very proud of our alma mater and we also feel the
responsibilities to contribute more for the society and the
country, as graduates from Fudan," said Li Daqian, an academician
with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the ceremony.
Fudan University was founded in 1905 with four classrooms and
160 students. Now it's one of the prestigious universities in China
with about 30,000 students.
(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2005)
