Peking University, Beijing, Feb. 27th, 2009: "When for the first time we wear the school badge on our coats with PKU school song played, I became very excited. Peking University is like the spiritual shrine of China and is the dream of every student. From that moment, I also took over the responsibility and mission PKU has given me." PKU student Shi Jing from the Department of Sociology wrote this down after the opening ceremony.

“This is just one of the many letters the teachers got,” Ma Huaxiang, head of the Division of Student Affairs told the reporter, "PKU has reformed the form of the opening ceremony, the scholarship award ceremony and the commencement, thus to enrich the content and the form of ceremonies. And the new ceremonies proved to be instructive."

Campus culture is regarded as the soul of a university. The reformed ceremonies at PKU become a platform for inheriting PKU spirit.

At the opening ceremony, PKU choir members taught the freshmen of the school song which was first composed in 1952 and has touched generations of PKU students. After that, the DV clips recording the moments the freshmen entered PKU, registered, walked into their new dorms, met the new classmates, formed the new class collective was played.

"University student soldier" Gao Ming and outstanding members of mathematical modeling group was highly praised, setting good examples for the freshmen.

 At the scholarship award ceremony, celebrities, well-known entrepreneurs who established scholarships for PKU were invited to present the scholarships and give speeches to tell their stories of success.

At the commencement, PKU graduates put on academic costumes, walked through the elaborately decorated "Academic Degree" door in due order and had their tassel turned by School principals and teacher representatives. Every time the President read out the degree-granting decision to students of a certain department, students would stand up together and shouted the slogans they designed for their department with pride in unison.

After that, faculty and parent representatives were invited to give their exhortations and benedictions. A DV recording students' life on campus was played.

Translated By: Xiang Yunke

Edited By: Wang Yi

Source: Guangming Daily