On the morning of November 15th,when Prof. Chen Jian, President of JU stroked the tassels of a doctoral hat on Mr. Tang Yingnian dressed in red doctoral gown and awarded him the Honorary Doctoral Degree of JU, applause resounded through the audience. The Honorary Doctoral Degree awarding ceremony attracted nearly 270 people including Mr.Tang and his family, representatives from Tang Clan and Shanghai Tang Junyuan Education Foundation, and some faculty members and students of JU. At the ceremony, JU presented Mr.Tang a portrait painting (as shown in figure 1 ) made by a JU faculty member, and students of School of Junyuan presented him their hand-made souvenirs. According to JU, this is the first honorary doctoral degree awarded by Jiangnan University.
As a well-known Wuxi-based business family with a long history over a hundred years, Tang Clan members have strong affection for their hometown--Wuxi. Donations to Wuxi educational cause have long become their tradition. Since the 1990s, Tang Clan has totally donated nearly 100 million RMB to promote the development of education in Wuxi. Also, Tang Clan and Jiangnan University keep a long-term partnership on education collaboration. In 1997, Mr. Tang set up "Tang Youshuqi Graduate Scholarship" in JU. From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Tang Xiangqian, father of Mr. Tang Yingnian, donated 40 million RMB to set up “Tang Xiangqian Special Education Fund”, co-funded “School of Junyuan” with JU, and donated 6 million to set up “Junyuan Scholarship”. In 2013, Mr. Tang set up “Junyuan Academy” for promoting engineering education. With the first batch of students of School of Junyuan graduating in June this year, they were recognized by the society based on their engineering capacity. The school’s running mode and teaching pattern has been highly accepted by their employers.
Mr. Tang Yingnian comes from an originally Wuxi-based family. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he went in industry in Hong kong. He is a veteran of Hong Kong’s political circle. To name a few, he once served as the Chairman of Hong Kong Industry Union and took some positions of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) such as the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, the Financial Secretary, the Chairman of the Economic and Employment Council and the Chief Secretary for Administration. He has been playing an important role for the development, regression and prosperity of Hong Kong. On the ceremony, Mr. Tang said that although with several honorary degrees of universities in Hongkong and America he thought it is of greater significance to receive this honor from JU, a China’s key university located in his hometown. “I have a kind of special feeling of excitement for obtaining such a great honor in my hometown Wuxi where 10 generations of my family have been working and living”. Based on his experience in study, career and public service, he hoped that the students should have a pragmatic attitude to achieve their dreams, focus on both knowledge and life rules and balance the relationship between tradition and innovation.
After the ceremony, Mr. Tang was invited to have a dialogue with JU students, where he encouraged students to keep enthusiasm and curiosity for learning, to enrich them constantly, to shape them constantly, to pursue personal cultivation, and to be better every day. Ms. Hua Boya, Vice Mayor of Wuxi, also attended the ceremony and Mr. Wu Guilong, Party Committee Secretary of JU, presided over the ceremony.
source：Wuxi Dailyhttp://epaper.wxrb.com
The original link :
http://epaper.wxrb.com/paper/wxrb/html/2014-11/16/content_442616.htm
Figure 1
