The Yuhu Campus changed its name to the Zhaotan Academy. The name changed and its restoration of school running was inaugurated on the morning of September 17th. Ding Cheng, Vice Mayor of Xiangtan City Government, Tang Yayang, Secretary of the Party Committee of HNUST, President Zhu Chuanqu, and all administrators in HNUST attended the opening ceremony presided over by Zhu Chuanqu. Attendees also included leaders of relevant departments of Xiangtan, directors of Yuelu Academy of Hunan University and functional departments of HNUST, and representatives of teachers and students of HNUST. Tang Yayang and Ding Cheng unveiled the plaque together for the Academy, and Vice President Xie Hui read out the document about opening it.
Ding Cheng said that renaming the Yuhu Campus and restoring its school running were an important event for boosting Xiangtan’s strength in education and culture. He hoped that HNUST should endeavor to prosper the Zhaotan Academy in three aspects: first, the Academy should be built into a brand name of red culture to strengthen its red tourism presence in the world; second, it should gain reputation for its history and culture, and innovate traditional culture to inherit and carry forward the value of Huxiang culture in the new era; third, it should strengthen talent and education, playing its role in talent cultivation, academic innovation and universal education to advance the quality of talents in the new era.
Tang Yayang expressed that the Yuhu Campus has a long history dating back to the Southern Song Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Song Gaozong (AD1131-1162) in Shaoxing period. It is not only the seat of the Confucian Temple and Zhaotan Academy, but also the location of HNUST, originally known as the Northern Hunan Construction College. Restoring Yuhu Campus’s enrollment is an important step to make cultural relic vibrant, inherit HNUST’s history and Xiangtan culture, respond to the faculty's concerns, and meet the needs of excellent students’ desire to further education.
He hoped that the Zhaotan Academy could be built into a highland for cultivating young people who keep up with the times, a base for traditional culture studies, a garden for cultural integration and mutual learning and a resort for international cultural tourism, so that the Confucian temple and the Zhaotan Academy would be revitalized.
Xiao Yongming, Dean of Yuelu Academy of Hunan University, said that HNUST and Hunan University were closely linked in terms of geography, students and teachers, and culture. The academies of both shoulder the mission of talents cultivation. The two should further strengthen exchanges and cooperation and promote common development; further excavate the traditional cultural resources and train new generations who are capable of the important task of national rejuvenation; further inherit and carry forward the culture of Hunan and make contributions to accelerating the construction of a greater cultural province and a powerful cultural country.
Kang Yongqiu, retired faculty representative, former Vice President of Xiangtan Normal University, revived the history of the Yuhu campus and expressed his hope for better development of HNUST.
Lv Shun, a postgraduate of Grade 2022 from the School of Humanities, has been closely related to the Zhaotan academy since his childhood. As a representative of Humanities and Social Sciences, he hopes that all postgraduate students can make the best of their youth and live up to their values.
As an important ambassador of Chinese culture preservation, the Zhaotan Academy will develop itself to better accomplish its mission.
(Translated by PAN Zhuo, QIN Sijin)