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2024 Opening Ceremony for Freshmen was held on the afternoon of September 2 at the foot of lush Yunfengshan Mountain. Representatives of related leadership attended the ceremony, including Wu Bo, vice president of South China University of Technology; Du Xiaoming, Secretary of CPC Guangzhou City University of Technology Committee; Su Cheng, president of the GCUT; Wang Ruisong, assistant to the president of Guangzhou Zhujiang Yunfeng Investment Co., Ltd.; Zhou Shiyao, vice president of the GCUT; Liu Jianbo, deputy secretary of CPC Guangzhou City University of Technology Committee and vice president of the GCUT; Shang Qichao, secretary of GCUT's Commission for Disciplinary Inspection and vice president of the GCUT, and Wei Demin, vice president of the GCUT. Chiefs of every school, department and division, freshmen counselors, representatives of class supervisors as well as freshmen were present. President Su Cheng delivered an opening address for the 2024 freshmen themed on “Working hard and forging ahead boldly to shoulder heavy tasks and responsibilities in the new stage”.

President Su extended cordial greetings to freshmen and sincere appreciation to parents and teachers of freshmen who cultivate and support them on behalf of related leadership. “We gather here today to welcome the coming of over 4,800 freshmen from 28 provinces, cities and autonomous regions.”

Combining the situations of school running, Su clarified how batches of GCUTers remained true to their original aspirations with keeping their feet on the ground while shouldering their responsibilities on the way pursuing their dreams; teachers with great teachers' code of morality vividly interpret the profound meanings of “learning from the knowledgeable individuals and setting a good example with their own conducts”, who encourage students to march forward through hacking through brambles and thorns to make breakthroughs in their life; GCUT  keeps improving the curriculum construction and make it a core engine in upgrading education quality. Moreover, centered on the development of students, the university ensures that every student can achieve what they desire in learning. In this way, the ecological teaching system featuring vibrancy and fruitful results can be established. With students’ benefits as the priority, GCUT respond to their requirements since different infrastructure has been built in succession, including new dormitories and teaching buildings, library, scientific innovation center, culture and sports center. The campus keeps improving its quality and expanding its scale in a speed faster than any period, displaying a grand blueprint of the campus. Each one of you will be a participant and witness of these achievements!

He added that the GCUT will continue to develop in the future, bringing more surprises and opportunities for students. The university is eager to forge ahead with every GCUTer in their full bloom. Hopefully, they can better themselves in mutual encouragement and growth.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. As the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward resolutions on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization, showing the way for Party and national development. He commented that the mission of comprehensively advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through a Chinese path to  modernization falls upon the new generation of Chinese youth in the new era. Since freshmen are facing such situation that new stage in their life, new development of the university and new journey of China intertwine,  they should further integrate their thoughts and actions with decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee. Therefore, they should shoulder their responsibilities to play an active part in advancing Chinese modernization in line with the university motto, “study extensively, reflect carefully, discriminate clearly and practice earnestly”. In this way, they can live up to the promise of “we will make China great again” in a practical way.

Drawing on examples of outstanding GCUEers, he put forward four hopes for freshmen:

Firstly, striving to be erudite with an open mind. As technology develops by leaps and bounds nowadays, different disciplines integrate. Students should not hesitate to be a cross-disciplinary learners by extensive reading with an open mind. Various disciplines have their own advantages, with engineering being vigorous, sciences being precise, literature being profound, economics being clear, management science being concise, arts being inspiring and so on. They can serve as a key to opening your eyes and exploring self-knowledge, helping to form a habit of learning with willingness, studiousness and methods.

Secondly, staying consistent with careful reflection and keeping perfecting yourselves. No matter it concerns behaving yourselves or pursuing your studies, careful reflection and decent behavior should be our motto. You should remain discreet and stick to the ancient Chinese saying, “self-introspection should be practiced on a daily basis”. In this way, you can make a steady and firm step along the way through self-introspection and in-depth exploration.

Thirdly, making a clear distinction between right and wrong with your independent thinking. College students should learn to accept, analyze and evaluate every information while keeping improving your ability in independent and critical thinking especially awareness of rule of law, which enables you to keep in mind that the legal red line cannot be crossed and the legal bottom line cannot be touched, thus you can know, understand, obey and follow laws. Consequently, you can find your values guided by the core socialist values based on laws. With your clear distinction between right and wrong, you can help jointly build a harmonious and ordered campus.

Fourthly, shouldering your responsibilities with sincere behavior. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee pointed out that one should insist on the unity of knowledge and action, focusing on learning from practice while strengthening one’s abilities. As a student, I hope you can learn beyond the campus to further temper yourself in the society, getting better understanding of national and social conditions as well as public feelings. Through actual practice, you can broaden your horizons and build your ability through hard work. With vigorous and determined endeavor, you can shoulder your responsibilities. Meanwhile, you can learn from your senior female and male schoolmates in the course of integrating into the society. Through combining your self-growth with national development, you will be a witness, pioneer as well as capable young people who is well-prepared to join the socialist cause.

 “Since you received the admission notice, the wheel of fortune has begun to spin. You will embrace a shared future with the GCUT, share its achievements and enjoy the results brought by its development. I hope you can stay true to your original aspirations, shoulder your responsibilities with determined endeavor in the journey toward advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Living up to your prime of life and catching up with the times, Chinese youth can write a new chapter in the new era. I sincerely hope that you will get satisfactory results in your learning and keep making unremitting efforts to improve yourselves without failing your youth!"