10 October 2020
On 10 October 2020, the school song of Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA), of which the lyrics were written by Tian Han, echoed in the open-air theater of STA’s Changlin Road Campus. The school-opening ceremony for the Class of 2020 new students of STA was held here and broadcast live on the Internet.
This school-opening ceremony for new students of STA was held after the people of the whole nation underwent the test of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and after the candidates for the national college entrance examination (Gaokao) and candidates for postgraduate examinations underwent an unusual examination. This school-opening ceremony for new students of STA was held on the historical point of time marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of STA; This school-opening ceremony for new students of STA was the very first one held at the Changlin Road Campus after this newest campus of STA was completed in 2019 and STA’s “four centres” campus layout was basically formed.
At 9 am, the ceremony officially began. Pan Jiayu, an old teacher who has served at STA for 45 years and a National Grade 2 stage designer, sounded the bell of studying and living at STA for the freshmen. This sound of bell, which has continued from the initial campus at Hengbangqiao to the newest campus at Changlin Road and from 1945 to 2020, reminds STAers not to forget the road that they have come all the way through, so as to firmly stick to the road under their feet that leads to the future.
STA leaders Xie Wei, Huang Changyong, Hu Min, Zhou Yin’e, Zhang Weiling, Tang Litu, Yang Yang, Zhang Jiachun and the heads of various colleges and departments attended the ceremony and took their seats on the rostrum.
Zhang Weiling, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of STA, presided over the school-opening ceremony for new students.
At the ceremony, all the freshmen stood up and solemnly put on the school badge of "Shanghai Theatre Academy". This school badge will inspire them to share the mission and glory of the STAers in the years to come, love their nation, love their country, make a clear distinction between right and wrong, have correct values, and become a new generation of STAers with both integrity and ability and aiming for excellence and perfection.
Zhang Yifan, a Class of 2020 undergraduate student of the Acting Department, and Du Mengying, a Class of 2020 postgraduate student of the Acting Department, spoke respectively as representatives of new students, expressing their cherishing of the identity as a student of STA and their unwavering choice of art after experiencing the extraordinary 2020.
Wu Yang, Deputy Director of Music for Chinese Opera Major of the College of Chinese Opera and winner of the Special Award of Shanghai Young Teachers' Teaching Competition, delivered a speech as a faculty representative, saying that young students should draw the power to work hard from history and gain the motivation to move forward from the times.
Every year, alumni representatives are invited to participate in the grand opening ceremony of new students. This year's "mysterious guest of honour" was Ji Xueping, a famous host, film and television actor, producer of Dragon TV and Class of 1995 alumna. In her speech, Ji Xueping talked first about why she chose STA and now how she looks at her choice at that time, as if she was back at the university campus more than 20 years ago. She talked about her own wonderful stories, and also let the post-2000s feel how STA’s education can create compound talents, thus creating more possibilities for students to shine in their lives.
This year's opening ceremony for new students included, for the first time, the session of presenting letters of appointment to full-time counselors and Class of 2020 head teachers, so as to further highlight the important role of these two teams in the growth of university students. Hu Min, Deputy Party Secretary of STA, read out the "Decision on the Appointment of Full-time Counselors and Class of 2020 Head Teachers of Shanghai Theatre Academy", and the relevant persons on the rostrum presented the letters of appointment.
On behalf of the school, Huang Changyong, Deputy Secretary and President of STA, extended the welcome to the Class of 2020 new students. 830 new students are the largest intake in the history of STA. Huang Changyong provided an analysis of the characteristics of STA’s new students with a group of statistics about the new students, and used the history, spirit and culture of STA to encourage everyone to create new legends belonging to STAers.
At the end of the opening ceremony, a solemn ceremony was held to handover the school flag. In the sound of the school song, Xie Wei, Party Secretary of STA, passed the school flag from the hands of senior student representatives to the hands of new student representatives. All the Class of 2020 new students stood up and solemnly vowed to the school flag: “Today, I officially become a STA. I will have lofty ideals, carry the spirit of STA, be patriotic and inspirational, seek truth and strive for action, be down-to-earth and diligent, and strive for perfection, adhere to cultural self-confidence, pursue excellence and perfection, and be determined to become a qualified person in the new era who will take on the great responsibility of national rejuvenation.”
In 2020, we have gone through difficulties and challenges. This school-opening ceremony for new students is a new start. Young students of Class of 2020 are setting out; STA with a history of 75 years is also setting out.
