Dear new students, parents, Governing Board members, colleagues and friends,

　　A very good morning to everyone and a warm welcome to our new students! Welcome and congratulations on becoming one of the CUHK-Shenzhen community! It’s not easy to arrive at where you are today, considering the intense competition you’ve gone through and the many disruptions induced by COVID. 家长朋友们，首先我要祝贺你们培养了这么优秀的孩子，同时我也要感谢你们在众多大学中选择了我们。现在我想请所有的同学和老师们起立，为我们的家长鼓掌。Families, I share your excitement in witnessing the first moments of your beloved one’s university life. Thank you for your trust in this University! Today is indeed one of the most joyful events of the year, for our incoming students are just about to transform the campus with fresh vigor, talent, and imagination.

　　Students, today’s ceremony is an unusual inauguration ceremony in CUHK-Shenzhen history as you are all viewing live broadcast in separate lecture rooms and remotely instead of sitting together here. Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, the University community has been prompt in adjusting our ways of working and learning to meet the demands of the changing situation, and today is another instance of our readiness to adapt to change. New students, I feel proud that your university life begins by recognizing the need for change and joining the efforts to enact it.

　　As you open this new and important chapter of life, I feel it a pleasure to speak to you on a few things to, hopefully, help you better navigate the next few years. First, I hope you will cultivate the habit of mindful thinking. 我希望你们在大学四年中养成独立思考的习惯。The University demands highly of you and I can tell that you will work hard, but I want to caution you against working hard unquestioningly. We don’t necessarily make progress by simply working hard if working does not go hand in hand with thinking. It’s equally futile to attempt to achieve something by doing everything that comes into your mind in a mechanically one-by-one manner. What I’m suggesting is that you train your mind to stay alive to your thoughts and actions, so that you can evaluate your efforts and make adjustment timely. To be more specific, do put aside some half an hour or so for quiet thinking and reflecting each day, each week, no matter how busy you get. You don’t have to and can’t possibly know everything, but you can be a mindful thinker all the time. I encourage you to be the latter. 同学们，你不需要是一个无所不知的人，但最好是一个凡事思考的人。

　　In our Age of Information, our greatest resource is threatening to become our biggest hindrance to mindful thinking. With an open internet accessible at all time and in all places, the temptation to search for the ready information online is enormous, but it becomes problematic if, whenever you come across with a question or a task, you turn immediately and unreflectingly to the internet. Another obstacle to mindful thinking is existing knowledge. Reliance on existing knowledge and internet often prevents us from thinking creatively. Worst of all, it sometimes prevents us from thinking at all. 妨碍思考的往往是你已有的知识。思考是一个创造的过程，而知识是你在网上找到的别人的资料，如果一碰到问题，你首先想到的是在网上搜索其他人的资料，你的思考能力就会逐渐减退，因此我想要提醒同学们要有意识地隔绝信息，培养自己的思考能力。

　　我想和大家谈的第二方面是学会沟通。生活在我们这个时代，沟通是一项非常重要的能力，但奇怪得很，我们的教育系统是不教人如何沟通的，从小学、中学到大学，基本都不重视这一点，长期以来的应试教育强化了学生的竞争意识，忽略了对沟通与合作能力的培养，以至于现在很多人，包括成年人会因为不懂得与人沟通，在生活和工作上碰壁，在心理上出现很多的问题，这都是非常遗憾的。因此，学会沟通的第一步是要把竞争的思维转化为合作的思维，与人相处，不能抱着竞争的心态，不要时时刻刻都想要赢，偶尔吃一些亏，输给别人几次也不是坏事。我常常与同学们讲，人生中最好的胜利是五胜四败，千万不要全胜，年轻的时候没有遭遇过失败和挫折的人，后面的人生往往会过得更加艰难。与人沟通最重要的是要具有同理心，要学会换位思考。沟通本质上是一个相互理解、取得共识的过程，在沟通的过程中，你要尊重对方，与人为善，善于聆听，懂得宽容与感恩。

　　I hope you will enjoy university life. I encourage you to pause before TC 101 and dive into its exhibitions; I encourage you to sit down to one of our open-air concerts, to say yes to an invitation to a dance party and high-table dinner, to run an illumi run, to explore the many lectures and seminars including those outside your chosen field of study. I encourage you to get involved and cheer for your college teams, and above all, to make friends. Some of those sitting around you today will become your life-time friends in the years ahead. You will inspire one another, support and cheer for another, and enrich one another’s life.

　　同学们，百年前，一代青年学子以民族兴亡、国家命运为己任，以青年的热情、勇气、志向与决心缔造了今日的共和国。今天在座的你们正如旭日勃发于东方，饱含着蓬勃的朝气与希望，未来在等待着你们的描绘。同学们，我希望你们能够始终牢记，将个人的发展与国家、时代的命运紧密联系在一起，要立志向，开眼界，脚踏实地，不负初心，承担起一代青年的责任与使命！最后我想把一句话赠送给我们的新同学，“set out towards the moon, even if you can’t reach it, you can still stand among the stars.”同学们，朝着月亮出发吧，即使不能到达，你也将置身于一片繁星之中。

　　谢谢大家！