Students, I particularly hope that you will stand high and see far from the first day you enter Tsinghua University. I do not want you to focus on the things around you or what the society will be like this year or next year or whether you can find a good job. I have always believed that entering Tsinghua University or Peking University means that you do not need to worry about daily necessities. You will get a job and support yourself. The real question is what you can do for Tsinghua.

You should know that the People's Republic of China had been founded for 50 years in 1999, and you were born around the 50th anniversary of the founding. You will be about 50 years old at the 100th anniversary. We can be sure whether China can realize the second goal of the "Two Centenary Goals" set by our Chinese people in fifty years is up to you. What China will be depends on what you will be. You must stand high and think about the next fifty years from now when you will be at the pinnacle of your life in every field. What you are and what your ambition and vision are will decide the upper limit for China. If you become mediocre, China will be mediocre too. If the students of Tsinghua University and Peking University do not put forward higher requirements for themselves, but only worry about how to make a living, then there is no hope for China. My highest expectation for students at Xinya College is to aim high and do great things, and do not care about trivial matters. This is my first expectation for you.

Secondly, I hope you can complete the transition from high school students to college students in the shortest possible time. Do you know what is the first criterion for completing it? Don't study for grades. Top universities in the United States have a definition of student excellence. Rule 1: We seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge, not just for the good grades. I think it is important. It is not that grades are not important. They are of course a measure, but if you are lost in grades, you are still a high school student with the mentality unchanged. Some good students were broken down and lost confidence in themselves simply for getting a bad academic result in the first semester. It is a pity that they do not see their potential. They thought they were not excellent because of the grades. They could not handle it precisely because they are too excellent. You were the best students in the high school, but from now on, you should cultivate your emotional intelligence. You must be able to put up with failures. It is pointless to get the full mark or the highest score. It doesn’t matter if the grades in one or two courses are not good. What's really important is that you find out what you should do, what you want to do, and what you can do in the first year or the four years of undergraduate study. It is called "discovering yourself".

That is to say, instead of putting yourself under the pressure by comparing with others all the time, you should cultivate an inner driving force to examine who you really are and what you can do. If you can't find yourself, you'll be trapped in a state of competing with others in scores. None of this matters. What matters isthat you can make yourself stronger and that no setbacks will bring you down. To be honest, no one can always have smooth sailing in their life. It is only a matter of time before the setback hits. You must have the ability to resist setbacks and failures. About student excellence I mentioned just now, there is another definition: making mistakes is an important part of learning. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Don't feel that we must get it right before talking and participating in the discussion. Don't be afraid of losing points. You should have a big heart. It is a high expectation I have for all of you. I don't want you to care too much about grades because study is not for grades, and grades are only a measure of your learning status. It does not mean that grades are not important or you cannot study. The key lies in that you are studying for yourself and what you have learned belongs to yourself.

Last but not least, I hope you can cultivate an interest. What is an interest? It is not your occupation, but a personal hobby, which is important. We should not make big talk in general education. At a minimum, we hope that you will be persons of spiritual richness. So I hope that what you are interested in will be different from what you are majored in. If you want to study physics in the future, you may take music as the interest. If you want to study economy and management, you may take literature as the interest. If you want to study Chinese literature, you may also learn about the world of insects. All in all, to cultivate a personal interest that has nothing to do with your work or research will make your life enriched and fascinating.