Peking University, April 14, 2017: The 13th Peking University Sociology Cultural Festival and Beijing-Tianjin University Sociology Student Forum was held at Peking University (PKU) on 8-9 April, 2017. Aimed to promote academic communication among sociology students, the student forum was co-started by 8 universities in 2015 and has been successfully held for 3 years, the participants of which are all undergraduates.
The opening ceremony
This year, in response to China’s national strategy for collaborative development among Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province as well as to further promote the construction of sociology, the forum invited Nankai University to be a participant, which made the total number of participating universities 10.
The forum was hosted by Peking University and co-organized by the following institutes: School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China; School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law; School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University; School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China; Department of Sociology, Nankai University; Department of Sociology, China Agricultural University; School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics; College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing University of Technology; School of Social Work, China Youth University of Political Studies.The forum was divided into four sessions: opening ceremony, sub-forums, debate contest, and closing ceremony. More than 300 teachers and students majored in sociology took part in this forum.
The 13th forum themes in “transition society”. In the context of China’s reform and opening up, development is not only an eternal theme for modernization, but also the goal for transformation of the modern society.As a symbol of the future of society, contemporary university students, who directly feel and promote society transition, are an important part of the transformation process. The setting of this theme is not only conducive to the solution of existing problems, the absorption of historical experience, the prediction of future scenarios, but also an integral part of the sociological knowledge system.
The forum curtained up in Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center, Sunshine Hall on April 8th. After the opening speech and review of previous forums, professor Feng Shizheng from School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China delivered a speech entitled “System Deposition and Institutional Change”, which triggered strong reaction from guests and classmates.
Lecture delivered by professor Feng Shizheng
On the afternoon of April 8th, two sub-forums theming “Change of Time and New Situation of Society” and “Challenge of Transition and Response in System” were respectively held at the same time. Teachers and students from the ten universities discussed over 14 research papers and exchanged ideas with each other. During the discussion, they bounced around ideas and made progress, the student’s shrewder insight into social issues won unanimous applause from the teachers.
On the morning of April 9th, students from 6 universities, including Nankai University, China Youth University of Political Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University etc., debated over issues such as “Whether Reform of Gaokao is beneficial to Education Equality”. The debaters competed over language abilities, exchanged thoughts and ideas, which fully showed their intellectual spirit and thriving character.
In the afternoon, professor Zheng Yefu from department of sociology gave a lecture entitled “Civilization is a By-product”. He started from exogamy, origin of agriculture, papermaking technology, art of printing and thought out of box with the spirit of suspicion, which presented a different way of seeing the world. After the lecture, the spectators actively asked questions and professor Zheng answered them patiently. The forum came to a successful end with the collision of different thoughts.
Since the national conference on “ideological and political work in colleges and universities” and the release of Central Document No.31, the department of sociology has put the implementation of the central spirit as the paramount mission. The document points out that we should speed up the improvement of sociology with Chinese characteristics and international horizons, build world-class philosophy and social science disciplines with Chinese characteristics.
The department of sociology believes that conducting academic forum among sociology students from different colleges as well as the in-depth collaboration and communication between various institutes of sociology is a good endeavor to promote the construction of sociology discipline. It enables sociologists to exchange ideas. In this forum, students and teachers from all institutions learnt from each other and made mutual improvement, which put the spirit of the conference into practice.
Written by: WU Chaochao
Edited by: WANG Chengsiou
