On February 28th, Fan Liming, the Vice President of SDU, headed a delegation to the University of Hong Kong to attend the ceremony celebrating the 8th anniversary of the founding of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole and Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole Fan Club. On behalf of SDU, Fan also conferred SDU Honorary Professorship and the title of editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mount Tai to Prof. Jao Tsung-i.
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Six hundred distinguished guests from various circles of society were present at the celebration. During her speech, Fan Liming expressed congratulations to the Jao Tsung-i Petite Ecole and looked back upon the friendly relationship between Prof. Jao and SDU.
As far back as 1940, when Prof. Jao was only 23 years old, he published three articles in a publication whose editor-in-chief was Gu Jiegang, the former director of Sinological Research Institute of Qilu University (In the 1950s, it was incorporated with National Shandong University, which was the precursor of the present Shandong University), which became the starting extraordinary point academic career.
In the 1950s, Jao’s talents were recognized by British scholar Frederick Sequier Drake, who was the former Dean of Studies of Qilu University and later became the Dean of Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong, Prof. Jao was recruited by him to teach at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong.
Later in his academic career, Prof. Jao had a long correspondence with Prof. Tong Shuye, the Professor of the School of History and Culture at SDU. Prof. Jao cared about the literature and history research and the development of Shandong University's archaeology studies. He congratulated Shandong University on its 110th anniversary in his own writing.
All these have shown the deep and close connection between Prof. Jao Tsung-i and Shandong University. Therefore, Shandong University cordially invited the service of Prof. Jao Tsung-i as honorary professor. This is just another step forward in the long relationship between Prof. Jao and SDU that will become part of his and the university’s academic story.
Fan Liming also stated that when Prof. Jao Tsung-i met with Xu Xianming who is the President of Shandong University in November 2011, he stressed that Shandong University should keep the advantages of this right time and place and carry on its advantage in literature and history and take the historical responsibility of rebuilding the Annals of Mount Tai. President Xu Xianming deeply agreed with this and he gave much support to this project right after he returned to the university. Now the project of rebuilding the Annals of Mount Tai is currently underway. For the opening ceremony of this important project, Shandong University proposed to invite Prof. Jao Tsung-i to be the editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mount Tai. Prof. Jao accepted it with pleasure and this laid a solid foundation for the smooth development of the follow-up research.
After the ceremony, Fan Liming and the representatives from the School of History and Culture at Shandong University also discussed the details of bilateral cooperation with the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole to start compiling the Annals of Mount Tai. At the same time, both sides have reached agreements on several agenda including holding international research activities, developing postdoctoral students' joint training and related editing work plans.
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While in Hong Kong, Fan Liming also visited the Si Yuan Foundation, the Fong Shu Fook Tong Foundation, the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, and others. She communicated with alumni of SDU in Hong Kong and friendly people of society.
Prof. Jao Tsung-i is a world-renowned sinologist whose academic achievements span across archaeology, history, literature, musicology and fine arts. He is proficient in English, French, Japanese, German, Hebrew, and Arabic, etc. He has a good knowledge of oracle bone inscriptions, Sanskrit and cuneiform. He is currently an honorary professor of both the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, Institute de France, the Great Bauhinia Medal, First Annual “China Arts Award” from the Ministry of Culture, and many other honors and awards.
Written by: Dong Xiaoxuan, Liu Yakun, Zhao Huan
Photo by: Ji Rui
Edited by: Ben Hammer, Jing Zizhao