{"id":268714,"date":"2019-03-20T14:44:33","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T18:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=268714"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:39:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:39:29","slug":"harvard-president-speaks-at-peking-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/harvard-president-speaks-at-peking-university\/","title":{"rendered":"In China, Bacow emphasizes common values"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
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Harvard President Larry Bacow speaking at Peking University.<\/p>

Photo by Yi Wang<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tIn China, Bacow emphasizes common values\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tColleen Walsh\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tDuring speech at Peking University, he also says universities are places that champion creative ideas and contrary views\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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Universities are key drivers of innovation and transformation, centers of progress and collaboration, institutions that foster connection despite turbulent times,\u00a0and havens of open exchange where myriad opinions and ideas offer solutions to the world\u2019s most pressing concerns, Harvard President Larry Bacow<\/a> told an audience in Beijing today.<\/p>\n

Bacow also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the day to discuss the importance of learning and of \u00a0cultural and educational exchanges. On his first overseas trip as Harvard’s president, he will travel to\u00a0\u00a0Japan after his China visit.<\/p>\n

During his speech at Peking University, the oldest such institution in China, Bacow addressed students, faculty, and administrators, telling them that \u201ctransformational thought and action\u201d often take root on university campuses where intellectual freedom is paramount.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverturning conventional wisdom takes a remarkable amount of grit and determination, as well as a willingness to welcome contrary views and to risk being proved wrong,\u201d said Bacow. \u201cGreat universities nurture these qualities. They are places where individuals are encouraged both to listen and to speak, where the value of an idea is discussed and debated \u2014 not suppressed or silenced. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many circumstances, my role as president is not to define the \u2018correct\u2019 position of the University but to keep the channels of discussion open,\u201d said Bacow, who has faced a range of controversial issues during his first year as Harvard\u2019s president that have sparked discussions among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the University. But while such debates can \u201ccause discomfort,\u201d he said, they also signal a \u201chealthy community\u201d and an \u201cactive and engaged citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a distance, Harvard can appear to be a place that speaks in one voice,\u201d said Bacow. \u201cIt is, in fact, a place of many voices. And one of the most important \u2014 and most difficult \u2014 of our tasks is to ensure that all members of the community feel empowered to speak their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Universities can also serve as \u201csources of strength through tough economic, political, and social times,\u201d said Bacow. And facilitating connections between scholars from different parts of the world, he added, can change the course of history. As an example of the power of collaboration, Bacow pointed to the Pugwash Conference in 1957, an international gathering of scientists in Nova Scotia, Canada, who were gravely concerned about the fate of the world amid the threat of weapons of mass destruction and who considered peaceful negotiation the model for settling international disputes.<\/p>\n\r\n

“To be sure, Harvard is an American university, and Beida is a Chinese university. Our institutions have a responsibility to contribute positively to our own societies and to the national good, as well as to the world at large. But as universities we fulfill this charge precisely by embodying and defending academic values that transcend the boundaries of any one country.”<\/p>\nLarry Bacow<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\n

\u201cTheir collective work helped to pave the way for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, among other consequential agreements,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were 22 attendees \u2014 seven from the United States, three from the Soviet Union, three from Japan, two from the United Kingdom, two from Canada, and one each from Australia, Austria, China, France, and Poland. Professor Zhou Peiyuan, a physicist and the sole Chinese member of the group, later became president of this great institution and, in 1978, led a delegation that arranged for scholarly exchange between China and the United States. We owe thanks to people like Professor Zhou Peiyuan for their farsighted and courageous leadership and for putting peace and mutual understanding above all other considerations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I speak to you now,\u201d he continued, \u201cour governments are engaged in important and at times difficult discussions over a range of issues \u2014 and those discussions have implications that reverberate around the world. I believe that sustaining the bonds that join scholars across borders is of the utmost importance for all of us gathered here today \u2014 and for anyone who cares about the unique role that higher education plays in the lives of countless people.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

\"Harvard
Harvard President Larry Bacow spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Andrea Verdelli\/Pool Photo via AP\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

“It is at crucial times like these that leading universities have a special role to play.\u00a0To be sure, Harvard is an American university, and Beida is a Chinese university,”\u00a0<\/span>Bacow continued, using Peking University\u2019s colloquial name. “Our institutions have a responsibility to contribute positively to our own societies and to the national good, as well as to the world at large. But as universities we fulfill this charge precisely by embodying and defending academic values that transcend the boundaries of any one country.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of his visit, Bacow also addressed more than 300 members of the Harvard alumni community at an event in Hong Kong on Monday sponsored by the Harvard Alumni Association, the Harvard Club of Hong Kong, the Harvard Club of Beijing, the Harvard Club of Shanghai, the Harvard Club of South China, Guangdong, and the Harvard Club of the Republic of China in Taiwan. Bacow will also speak with Harvard alumni in Japan.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Bacow traced Harvard\u2019s long ties to China, and detailed the ongoing partnerships that have helped define their academic and intellectual engagement for more than 100 years.<\/p>\n

In 1879, prominent Chinese scholar Ge Kunhua traveled to Cambridge to become Harvard\u2019s first instructor in Mandarin Chinese. The trove of books that accompanied him laid the foundation for the Harvard-Yenching Library, the third-largest of the University’s 12 libraries. With 1.5 million volumes, it is also \u201cthe largest academic library for East Asian studies outside of Asia,\u201d said Bacow.<\/p>\n\r\n\t\n\n\t

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President Larry Bacow addressed more than 300 members of the Harvard alumni community in Hong Kong on Monday. Timothy O\u2019Rourke\/Hong Kong Event Photography\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\n

Today, Harvard\u2019s scholarly programs and centers devoted to China include the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies<\/a>, whose mission is to \u201cadvance scholarship in all fields of China Studies at Harvard;\u201d the Harvard-Yenching Institute<\/a>, established in 1928 to advance higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Chinese culture; the\u00a0Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment<\/a>, an interdisciplinary project that conducts peer-reviewed research; and the\u00a0Harvard China Fund<\/a>, which provides University-wide funding for China-related work, internships, and summer school.<\/p>\n

Bacow noted that the University\u2019s newest effort, The Harvard Global Institute<\/a>, was launched four years ago to provide funding for small- and large-scale research projects, the majority of which are focused on China. \u201cEffective approaches and solutions to challenges posed by climate change, cybersecurity threats, and international relations will not be developed by a single university \u2014 or a single nation,\u201d he said. \u201cChange and adaptation in these and other areas will require many people collaborating across schools, sectors, and societies, as well as governments.\u201d That collaboration is well underway. More than 1,000 students and more than 1,000 scholars are at Harvard this year from China, and they learn and work in every School, \u00a0said Bacow. More than 2,500 alumni call China home.<\/p>\n\r\n

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