On November 20, the Pridi Banomyong Library, Thammasat University, welcomed a group of representatives from Shandong University. They included Professors Zhang Xiaohui of Shandong University’s Confucius Institute and Ren Xiangrong, Director of University Admissions Office. As TU students and ajarns may know, Thammasat University is the only official partner in Thailand for academic exchange with Shandong University, which has many such associations with distinguished universities around the world. Several dozen TU students have enjoyed studying at Shandong University for six-week exchange programs. Shandong University is one of the largest universities in China by student population, with around 60,000 students. Shandong is a coastal province of the People’s Republic of China, part of the East China region. Shandong, located along the lower reaches of the Yellow River, has been historically important for Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Confucianism. In Shandong province, Mount Tai, north of the city of Tai’an, is an important ceremonial centers for China and the city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius, whose principles are still held as standards in China today. Shandong University has eight campuses, most of them in Jinan, capital of Shandong province. Just last year the latest campus to be opened was situated in Qingdao, a port city of skyscrapers, parks and beaches bordering the Yellow Sea. According to one ranking, Shandong University is among the top 15 Chinese universities in teaching and engineering, and among the top 10 in number of publications included in the Science Citation Index. Studies in physics, mathematics, and medicine are particularly outstanding at Shandong.
Notable alumni and faculty
Among the many noteworthy graduates of Shandong University is Mo Yan, a novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. The TU Libraries own some books by Mo Yan, including Pow! Mo Yan was born in Gaomi County in Shandong to a family of farmers. His novel Red Sorghum is about a family living in Shandong between 1923 and 1976. Many of his stories were inspired by his experiences growing up in Shandong province. Some of the difficulties he lived through, and how stories and books helped him to survive, were described in his Nobel Prize Lecture:
I was born ugly. Villagers often laughed in my face, and school bullies sometimes beat me up because of it. I’d run home crying, where my mother would say, “You’re not ugly, son. You’ve got a nose and two eyes, and there’s nothing wrong with your arms and legs, so how could you be ugly? If you have a good heart and always do the right thing, what is considered ugly becomes beautiful.” Later on, when I moved to the city, there were educated people who laughed at me behind my back, some even to my face; but when I recalled what Mother had said, I just calmly offered my apologies… After dropping out of elementary school, I was too small for heavy labor, so I became a cattle- and sheep-herder on a nearby grassy riverbank. The sight of my former schoolmates playing in the schoolyard when I drove my animals past the gate always saddened me and made me aware of how tough it is for anyone – even a child – to leave the group… Our Taoist master Laozi said it best: “Fortune depends on misfortune. Misfortune is hidden in fortune.” I left school as a child, often went hungry, was constantly lonely, and had no books to read. But for those reasons, like the writer of a previous generation, Shen Congwen, I had an early start on reading the great book of life. My experience of going to the marketplace to listen to a storyteller was but one page of that book. After leaving school, I was thrown uncomfortably into the world of adults, where I embarked on the long journey of learning through listening. Two hundred years ago, one of the great storytellers of all time – Pu Songling – lived near where I grew up, and where many people, me included, carried on the tradition he had perfected. Wherever I happened to be – working the fields with the collective, in production team cowsheds or stables, on my grandparents’ heated kang, even on oxcarts bouncing and swaying down the road – my ears filled with tales of the supernatural, historical romances, and strange and captivating stories, all tied to the natural environment and clan histories, and all of which created a powerful reality in my mind.
At the Banquet Speech, another part of the Nobel Prize ceremonies, Mo Yan added:
I wish to extend special thanks to my older relatives and compatriots at home in Gaomi, Shandong, China. I was, am and always will be one of you. I also thank the fertile soil that gave birth to me and nurtured me. It is often said that a person is shaped by the place where he grows up. I am a storyteller, who has found nourishment in your humid soil. Everything that I have done, I have done to thank you! My sincere thanks to all of you!
A famous ajarn of Shandong University was Lao She (1899–1966), author of the novel Rickshaw Boy, copies of which may be requested from the Book Bank of the TU Library, Rangsit Campus. In the 1930s, he taught at Shandong University (Qingdao).
Publications and research
Shandong University has many well-established English language scholarly publications, including the Journal of Chinese Humanities, the Review of Industrial Economics, and the Journal of Folklore Studies. In July, international media reported on an archeological discovery possibly affecting our understanding of the past of Shandong Province. A group of archeologists led by Professor Fang Hui, director of Shandong University’s School of History and Culture, uncovered remains of unusually tall people who had lived around 5000 years ago. The finds were made in Jiaojia Village, Zhangqiu District, Jinan City, Shangdong Province. Several of the people would have stood about 1.8m or even 1.9m tall, at a time when most Europeans were considerably shorter. Confucius himself, according to legend, was exceptionally tall. Interpretation of these discoveries continues as the ongoing dig advances.
In another study gaining international press coverage, in July Dr. Bo Xi, Research Director at the Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health at Shandong University in China announced some results of a cooperative research project between the University of Shandong and the University of Texas, as published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Bo Xi, who is an expert on hypertension, epidemiology, blood pressure, clinical genetics, and genetic epidemiology, explained:
Light-to-moderate drinking might have some protective effects against cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking can lead to death. A delicate balance exists between the beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol consumption, which should be stressed to consumers and patients.
According to the findings, moderate drinkers being studied had longer survival rates than those who did not drink alcohol at all. At the same time, those who drank more than what was considered moderate also put their health in danger. Dr. Bo Xi’s previous research has offered insights into such problems as obesity and hypertension in children.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)