On the afternoon of October 18, 2021, the School of Foreign Languages invited Professor Lin Shaohua, a famous literary translator and essayist from Ocean University of China, to deliver a lecture on the theme of "Rhetoric and Expression: From Haruki Murakami's Welcome Speech". Many students and teachers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and East China Normal University attended the lecture.

Chang Hui, Executive Associate Dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, gave a welcome speech, expressing his warm welcome and sincere thanks to Prof. Lin Shaohua for his coming.

Prof. Lin talked about the relationship between rhetoric and expression, starting from the welcome speech of the contemporary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami at Waseda University. Lin said that  Haruki Murakami innovatively explained the meaning of literature in his speech, that is, literature was the origin of the driving force of life, an important part of the healthy development of society, and the duty of literature was to "salvage" the parts beyond consciousness and logic, to fill the gap between consciousness and heart. Professor Lin read out the speech he gave at the graduation ceremony of doctoral students at Ocean University of China, pointing out that a rhetorical speech had a stronger emotional resonance with the audience. By quoting from Professor Zhu Suli of Peking University in his graduation speech, Lin expressed his ardent expectation of the students.

In the “Q and A” session, Mr. Lin had an in-depth exchange with the students and teachers on such questions as what was a close-to-literature way of life. According to Lin, literature was omnipresent, and poetry was indispensable, and literature and poetry helped us detect beauty, appreciate beauty and express beauty.

With his humorous and funny speech style, Mr. Lin explained his unique insights on rhetoric and expression, as well as on literature, which deeply impressed and greatly benefited the students and teachers present. The lecture concluded successfully with warm applause. After the lecture, Mr. Lin interacted with the students and teachers cordially, signed autographs for students and wrote down sincere blessings.