The Watts’ books donation ceremony and cultural exchange meeting were held in the library on the 18^th of October. More than fifty faculties have participated in the activity.

At the beginning, the students of College Students’ Art troupe performed a wonderful welcome dance called ‘Qiao Hua Dan’. Next, Dr. Hu Wanli and Ms. Zhao Fengjuan, a member of Library management department introduced the connection between the Watts and Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology. Prof. Frank McMahon, Honorary Presidet of Gengdan, Prof. John Watt, Prof. Paul O'Sullivan and Vice President Xu Shengyun all gave speeches.

Mrs. Anne Watt gave a keynote speech on "Building a Non-profit Organization and Spreading Chinese Culture." Chairman Wang Xiaowen and the school library successively presented the Chinese traditional art treasures and the Chinese opera characters Mu Guiying and Shu Hongqi’s calligraphy works “Cultural Envoy”. Prof. John Watt said that he has been to China many times in his life and has participated in many exchanges in colleges and universities but this time is the most touching one.

Prof. John Watt have been engaged in the research, education and dissemination of Chinese culture throughout their whole lives. They have promoted Chinese culture and language in primary and secondary schools in the United States and the UK. At the same time, they made unremitting efforts to promote Chinese culture. This time they donated more than 4,000 books and classics about Chinese culture and history to the Gengdan Library. Their deeds and actions touched everyone involved. After their donation to the library, the library will set up a special collection and will make the best use of the contribution.

Dr. John Watt was born in Rugby, England in 1934. He received a bachelor's degree in history from Oxford University, a master's degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University, and a doctorate in Chinese and Japanese history from Columbia University. He currently serves as the vice chairman of the ABMAC Foundation and he is also an honorary visiting professor at the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu. Dr. John Watt has written The Local Officials of the Late Imperial China, Public Medicine in Wartime: Biomedicine, the Emergence of State Medicine and the Chinese National Medical School, 1931-1945, How War I Saved Lives in Wartime,etc He has served as a member of the Academic Committee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Redland, the Chief Executive of the American Medical Assistance Association and the Board of Directors, the Executive Secretary of the China and International Relations Research Committee, and the Academic Director of the China Research Partnership. He once gave a speech on public health issues in China at Peking University Medical Humanities Research Institute and Chengdu Third People's Hospital.

Edited: International business school

Translated and Updated: International Office

Source: BGD News (Chinese)