On the afternoon of March 17, 2015, Drew Faust, President of Harvard University, along with Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Mark Elliott, Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, visited Peking University (PKU). LIN Jianhua, President of PKU and ZHU Shanlu, Chairman of Peking University Council, received the guests at Luce Pavilion and the David Packard Pavilion respectively, accompanied by LI Yansong, Vice President of PKU, YU Kongjian, Principal of the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture of Peking University, and FU Jun, Executive Deputy Dean of the School of Government. China’s development methods as well as possible cooperation between both sides were discussed.
During the talk conducted at the Luce Pavilion, the current urbanization of China was examined. Both sides agreed that China should not attempt to follow the urbanization models of other nations and ought to develop a model of its own instead. The current situation of urban planning and development in several cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai, were brought up as examples, and potential models were proposed and discussed. Cooperation between the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture of Peking University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design was also discussed.
In the meeting conducted at the David Packard Pavilion, ZHU Shanlu made note of the important roles Peking University and Harvard University play in their respective countries and the significance of cooperation between the two schools. Collaborative programs do not necessarily have to be numerous but ought to be efficacious and productive. Interactions between academics from both sides would be particularly effectual and crucial, and they may even serve as the antecedence of President XI Jinping’s upcoming visit to the United States. Chairman Zhu also referred to the 375th anniversary of the founding of Harvard and extended a warm welcome to President Faust to participate in the 120th anniversary of the founding of PKU in 2018.
Towards the end of the discussion, both sides reached an agreement to build a stronger relationship and expressed sincere willingness to develop further collaboration in the future.
Written by: Gustav Kuan-Wei PAN
