On the afternoon of January 6, 2022, the 7th Symposium on Talent Cultivation and Education at Xinya College was held in Conference Room 212 of the Central Main Building of Tsinghua University. The seminar was divided into two sessions, the first on the theme of running a school under the college system and the second on the theme of Xinya College’s general education courses in the arts. Yang Fan, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office, Su Peng, Director of the College Management Centre and Secretary of the Party Committee, Zhu Dejun, Deputy Director of the College Management Centre and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Li Yanmei, Dean of Zhili College, Gu Tao, Vice Dean of Rixin College, Liang Xidong, Dean of Weiyang College, Liu Zheng, Dean of Tanwei College, Li Junfeng, Dean of Xingjian College, Mei Ciqi, Director of the Writing and Communication Teaching Centre, Li Mu, Wang Yi, Qing Feng, Liu Chen, Qu Jingdong, Zhao Tianye, and Li Xi, teachers of art general education courses at Xinya College, Zhang Wei, teacher at the the Art Education Centre, and all members of the Xinya Educational Administration Council were in attendance.

Experience with the College System

The first session, "Exchange of Experiences Running a School Under the College System", was chaired by Ruan Dong, Head of the Party Work Group of Xinya College. Su Peng, Director of the College Management Centre, expressed her gratitude to Xinya College for organizing an exchange of experience regarding the college system and discussed the development of general arts courses in the humanities with the deans of each college. After the establishment of the Qiangji Colleges, the College Management Centre has cooperated with the Department of History to offer eight general education courses in history, and with the School of Marxism to offer politics and ideology courses that combine classroom teaching and extracurricular learning to ensure the quality of general education courses. However, some students report difficulty with general education courses as well as a lack a connection between their general and professional education. Gan Yang, Dean of Xinya College, expressed that within a limited number of credits, students should not be forced to take all the general education courses in each discipline, resulting in a superficial understanding of each category, but should be encouraged to study a particular category of general education in depth.

Mei Ciqi shared his experience with developing the Writing and Communication course. He pointed out that Writing and Communication has clear expectations for students: the course does focus on cultivating literary skills or training academic essay writing, but rather places emphasis on in-depth reading and thinking on a specialised topic under the guidance of a teacher, the formation of a framework for questions and analysis, and finally the composition of a complete reasoned essay. Mei shared two crucial insights from the development of the Writing and Communication course. Firstly, emphasis should be placed on a deeply immersive learning process. In addition to classroom teaching, teachers should also provide one-to-one guidance to students after class. The small classroom teaching model provides a basis for in-depth communication between teachers and students. Secondly, course expectations should be clearly managed, with the Teaching Centre stipulating uniform course requirements and providing clear instructions to students prior to the start date, so as to foster a healthy collaboration and interaction between teaching and learning before courses begin. Mei also spoke of exploring the connection between the Writing and Communication course and professional courses in the future as well as adjusting course requirements to better achieve the goals of education.

The deans of the Qiangji Colleges introduced the basic situation and relevant experience of their respective colleges and raised many valuable points. Li Yanmei expressed her gratitude to Xinya College for its support and assistance to Zhili College. She pointed out that general education and interdisciplinary training are necessary to students amidst a complex world. Li described Zhili College’s experience with the development of an interdisciplinary professional curriculum, flexible professional training, and demonstration courses. She spoke about how Zhili, as a young college, hopes to develop the college's heritage and spirit as soon as possible in order to provide positive motivation for students.

Weiyang College is the largest of Tsinghua's Qiangji Colleges, with the largest student body and the widest range of majors. This places higher demands on its educational and teaching work. Liang Xidong introduced the three major principles of the Weiyang Academy curriculum: talent cultivation, integration of general and professional studies, and coherence between undergraduate and doctoral studies. He pointed out that general education is not solely comprised of general arts courses taken within the first two years of study, but also has the crucial responsibility of leading and educating students outside the classroom. Liang spoke of his hope for general education to continue throughout students' four years of study and throughout their lives, not only helping them improve their literacy in the humanities, but also nurturing their spirit and training their emotional intelligence.

Liu Zheng used biomedical engineering as an example to introduce the teaching philosophy of Tanwei College: to contribute to a better world through "molecular miracles". Based in the Biochemistry Institute, Tanwei College’s various majors place emphasis on the applications of chemistry in different fields. Through educational opportunities such as mentorship and workshops, the College hopes to better activate students’ minds and develop their aspirations.

Li Junfeng introduced the principles of science and engineering training at Xingjian College, which is based around the Mechanics major. Xingjian College has high requirements for foundational knowledge in mathematics, physics, and mechanics. For this reason, the College has optimized its curriculum and promoted the integration of in-class and extracurricular learning so that students have sufficient energy to strengthen their foundations. At the same time, the College has designed different teaching models based on individual students’ needs, such as honorary degrees and the "one person, one policy" combined undergraduate and doctoral program, striving to help each student achieve their full potential. Li also spoke of his hope that Xingjian College would continue to strengthen its proportion and quality of general arts courses.

Gu Tao began by recalling his own experience in developing the course "Reading on Shi Ji" at Xinya College. He mentioned that the administration of Rixin College drew on many useful insights from Xinya College. On the topic of general education for students in humanities majors, Gu introduced several general arts courses in the life sciences, industrial engineering, and the fine arts, customised by Rixin College to foster creativity in the humanities. At the same time, Rixin College is actively planning a number of high quality foundational courses in literature, history, and philosophy in the hopes of fostering a Rixin community.

Gan Yang, Dean of Xinya College, introduced Xinya’s exploration of the “Five Educational Approaches” in recent years. Gan stated that university students nowadays receive rigorous intellectual training, but often lack spiritual fulfilment, with few real artistic hobbies and lessened communication with others in daily life. Xinya's Hardworking Spirit Education Project is an attempt to solve this problem by encouraging students to put aside their status as Tsinghua students and return to the life of ordinary people, close to the land and the working people. Hardworking Spirit Education Project has achieved relatively good results in the past two years, with many students reporting that they found the labor rewarding and grew closer to their peers in the process. Gan pointed out that the goals of general education and professional training are fundamentally the same, yet conflicts arise when students must allocate limited time and energy to both. With regard to the present imbalance between students' intellectual education and physical and mental growth, Gan remarked that it remains worthwhile for professional education to make some space for general education.

Xinya’s General Education Courses in the Arts

The second session of the symposium focused on the development of an art general educational curriculum at Xinya College, and was hosted by Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office Yang Fan and Vice President of Xinya College Zhao Xiaoli.

Yang began by saying that Xinya College has made many positive explorations in general education over the years, especially in creating a number of representative and high-quality general education courses that provide valuable experience for the school's educators. From a university-wide perspective, the tension between general education and professional education has always existed, and has caused difficulties in the design of general education courses. Yang expressed hope that the teachers of general education courses at Xinya College can put forth suggestions and opinions based on their firsthand experience with teaching such courses and student-teacher interaction, thereby promoting in-depth thinking about the teaching of general education courses at the university level.

Li Mu from the Academy of Arts & Design has been teaching the course "Art Inspiring" to Xinya students since 2014. During the symposium, Li started off by describing the last lecture of each semester, recounting several problems encountered and lessons learned from teaching art. For one, Li finds that students are increasingly accustomed to a set of artistic standards, and are less equipped to identify and ask questions; they are often overly admiring of technique and shy away from self-expression in their artistic creation. The Art Inspiring course hopes to counteract students' tendency to see art as a conceptual and intellectual pursuit and encourage them to experience art on a deeper level through their own eyes, to capture the moment when they are touched by art, and thus to revive their natural curiosity about the world and their courage to express themselves creatively. Art Inspiring is the longest-standing general education course at Xinya and has been widely praised by students. Listening to Li's plain yet vivid narration, it was as if one was in the classroom of Art Inspiring at Xinya, experiencing the open worldview and profound power that art brings to people.

Wang Yi and Qing Feng from the School of Architecture gave a basic introduction of the course “The Culture of Architecture and City”. This general education course is aimed at non-architecture majors. Therefore, how to pass on the basic concepts and skills of architecture as well as the in-depth theoretical content constitutes a major challenge for curriculum design. On the one hand, the course emphasizes the cultural connotations, social values, and philosophical reflections embodied by architecture, and on the other hand, students are encouraged to delve deeper into architecture as an entity and to experience its meaning and value in an architectural manner. With these two teaching objectives in mind, the two teachers and the teaching assistants of the course have designed a rich curriculum that includes a wide range of on-site lectures, field trips, and hands-on exercises. The course also requires students to complete an architectural design as if they were architecture students. Although the course is quite challenging, both teachers commended the students' excellent work, with several students reaching the level of architecture majors. The two teachers further pointed out that the experience of exploring The Culture of Architecture and City has also provided the School of Architecture with many ideas for adjusting and improving its professional curriculum.

Liu Chen, teacher of Italian Renaissance Art, said she hopes that this course is not only a class on art history or aesthetic skills, but also provides an opportunity for students to reflect deeply on man’s relationship with himself, with others, and with the world through the profoundly humanist lens of Renaissance art. Through various works of art, the course explores a range of themes such as the Renaissance's connection to antiquity and the Middle Ages, the concept of humanity, Italian humanism, and the relationship between art and religion, science, culture and philosophy. Liu Chen has put significant effort and thought into the delivery of course content, homework and assessment methods, and the development of different forms of training to fully engage students and allow them to fully devote themselves to the course.

This semester, Qu Jingdong from Peking University is teaching a general education course at Xinya entitled “The World of the Scholars in Landscape Painting”. Invoking the concept of blank space in art, Qu argued that students' lives are too full today, and that a proper “blank space” and necessary escapism is the source of true creativity. He remarked that the world of landscape painting was a more complete world created by the ancient literati outside of their mundane lives; through this course, which is based around landscape painting, he hopes that students can find a wide new world outside of their full lives and continue to nurture it, thus maintaining a constant drive and passion for life. Gan Yang mentioned that in the past two years, Xinya College has developed several focused courses on traditional Chinese art, also in the hopes of cultivating the “ethereal spirit” of the students.

This year, Zhao Tianye from the Hangzhou Academy of Chinese Painting was invited to offer two courses on the fundamentals of Chinese flower and bird painting at Xinya College. As Zhao said, the course does not offer credit; students are expected to take the course purely out of interest in order to earnestly appreciate the charm of traditional Chinese culture. The course is taught in small classes. At the start of each session, the instructor briefly introduces some Chinese painting theory and related knowledge of flower and bird painting, then initiates practice, so that students can experience the creative process of flower and bird painting on their own. The instructor provides guidance throughout the class and maintains communication with students outside of class. Zhao spoke of how well students entered the zone during the eight-week course, conversing with the ancients and experimenting with free and sincere self-expression through the process of putting pen to paper, contemplating, and reading.

Li Xi from the School of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University will be offering general education course “Chinese Literati Landscape” at Xinya next term. According to Li Xi, Chinese art has its own logic different from Western art, based on philosophical thinking about life and death, form and spirit, presence and absence, which paves the way for reflections on landscape and nature. This is the message that the course Chinese Literati Landscape hopes to convey to students. Building upon Qu Jingdong’s interpretation of traditional Chinese art, Li argued that the Chinese literati incorporated their reflections on the forms of life into their artistic creations, shaping an artistic state of life. She hopes that through this course, students will be able to understand the historical and philosophical reflections expressed in the imagery of the landscape in Chinese literature and art, as well as appreciate the simple but genuine way of life and enjoyment pursued by the Chinese literati.

Zhang Wei from the Art Education Centre discussed his experience teaching Appreciation and Practice of Dance. This course does not teach specific dance movements, but encourages students to unleash their natural instincts and participate in choreography themselves. Zhang shared students' assignments from this semester's dance course and their reflections on the course: most students began the course with the intention of “taking it easy” and earning “easy credits”, and in the beginning were not very open, but through actually participating in the creation of dance and self-expression through their bodies, they gained profound life experience. Zhang points out that unlike professional dance courses, an important aim of this course is to bridge the gap between the principles of dance and the essence of dance as a state of life; to encourage creative thinking and cultivate creative abilities through the process of creation.

The teachers of arts general education courses at Tsinghua University come from different academic backgrounds and have myriad understandings of the courses they teach. During the symposium, all expressed their views and opinions freely. Through cordial and lively exchange, the participants reached a basic consensus: in today's university environment, education in the arts is invaluable and irreplaceable; through art, students can transform their emotions and state of being to return to nature and to themselves. The teachers' reflections and teaching practices also provided valuable experience for the further deepening of general education and art education at Xinya College.