With Chinese New Year around the corner, on February 8, School of Foreign Languages (hereafter referred to as SFL) organised an event for students staying at campus during the festival. Du Xiaming, Vice President of SJTU Faculty and Staff Union, Ding Jian, Secretary of CPC SFL Committee, Zhang Hongmei, Vice President of SFL, Zhu Yifan, Vice Secretary of CPC SFL Committee, Zhao Xiaohong, President of SFL Faculty and Staff Union, Wu Baohua, Chair of SFL Japanese Department, and over a dozen class teachers and staff representatives attended the event.

At noon, SFL Faculty and Staff Union held a dumpling-making activity in celebration of Chinese New Year. While making dumplings, the students and teachers enjoyed casual conversations about academics, work, and social life, engaging in a meaningful exchange of thoughts and emotions in these heart-warming moments.

In the afternoon, SFL leaders including Ding Jian, Zhang Hongmei, and Zhu Yifan, together with counsellors Ren Zhujing and Liu Yan, visited the students in their dormitories and the school library. Bringing the carefully-selected gift packs, the teachers, on behalf of SFL, sent their best new year wishes to the students.

During the visit, Ding Jian expressed his genuine care about the students’ life and study during the winter vacation. He talked with the students about the pandemic prevention measures in their hometowns, and reminded them to keep in close contact with their families. He encouraged the student Party members and student leaders to continue to play their backbone role and radiate their warmth and kindness, adding brilliance to the cheerful Spring Festival.

Zhang Hongmei introduced to the students SJTU’s recreational and sports activities and logistic service arrangements during the festival. She emphasised the significance of anti-pandemic awareness, and recommended that they should enhance physical exercise and work out comprehensive holiday plans, thereby striking a proper balance between work and leisure.

Chatting with the PhD students learning in the library, Zhu Yifan, drawing on her personal experience, put forward practical and constructive suggestions on writing PhD thesis. She advised them to stick to the golden rule of “preparing early”, and actively start the conception beforehand.

 The students were deeply touched by the tender solicitude of SFL leaders and teachers, which also immersed them in the electric and homely atmosphere of Chinese New Year. They said that SJTU and SFL had provided full and firm support in all aspects of study and life since the winter vacation; they would take advantage of the comfortable environment, and keep on striving to achieve more during the vacation.