In the afternoon of May 24^th, the 4^th International Chinese Study was held successfully at BNUZ International Center.

President Prof. Tu Qingyun, Vice President Prof. Fu Ailan, Dr. Dodds, President of Saint Mary’s University, Prof. Robert Perrins, Vice President of Acadia University, Prof. Charles Beaupre, Dean of Confucius School in Saint Mary’s University, attended the ceremony, together with this year’s participant students including 25 students from Saint Mary’s University and Acadia University and 50 students from BNUZ. The ceremony was chaired by Prof. Zhang Mingyuan, Dean of the School of Art.

First, President Prof. Tu gave welcome speech. He first extended warm welcome to President Dodds, guest faculty and students from Canada. In particular, he stressed that International Chinese Study is one of BNUZ’s featured programs as well as the major project of BNUZ’s 12^th Five Year Plan. Since its establishment, ICS has always been pursuing an internationalized teaching model and aiming at producing practical talents. It has already achieved fruitful results. Based on the past experience, this year’s ICS has made another progress that the number of international students has reached over 25. At the end of his speech, Prof. Tu sincerely hoped that Canadian students could make most of the program and learned more about China.

Then, in Dr. Dodds' speech, he said that the cooperation between SMU and BNU could be dated back to 1980s. and at the beginning of this century, such cooperation was expanded to Zhuhai. ICS has become an important program for SMU students to come to China to exchange and communicate. He also expressed his gratitude seeing more students participating in the programs each year.

Next, as one of the founder of ICS, Prof. Perrins also gave a wonderful speech. He said that in the first ICS program, there were only 3 Canadian participate students, but this year, there are 25 thanks to the great support of Prof. Tu and Prof. Fu. He said that we are not only partners but also sisters. ICS not only connects Acadia University with BNUZ but also established a wonderful bonding between two cultures.

Last, Janet Fraser Aucoin, student representative from Acadia University gave a speech about her experience with ICS. She regarded this program as an important opportunity to study in a global vision, and learn more about China. At the same time, she is also looking forward to communicate with Chinese students.