30,000 XTU Teachers and Students Solemnly Welcome the Bronze Statue of Chairman Mao Zedong

On the morning of September 3rd, with great respect and excitement, 30,000 XTU teachers and students solemnly welcomed the bronze statue of Chairman Mao Zedong in our university. The waving colorful flags on both sides of the main road at the school gate, the thundering songs of “Reddest is the Sun, Dearest is Chairman Mao” and also the fluttering banners in the wind bearing the slogans of “Work Hard to Make XTU a Success as enjoined by Chairman Mao” and “Chairman Mao Will Always be in the Hearts of XTU Teachers and Students”, witnessed the grand scene.

At 09:58 am, when the truck carrying the bronze statue was slowly drawing near to our university, salutes were fired and XTU teachers and students saluted the statue with eyes. The welcome ceremony followed lasted a short time but was a ceremonious one, which was presided over by President Luo He’an. Peng Guofu, Secretary of the CPC Committee of our university, delivered a speech at the ceremony.

Mr. Peng said, “Today, we solemnly welcome the bronze statue of Chairman Mao Zedong in our university with great respect and excitement. The statue will be erected in our university for ever, guiding and inspiriting XTU teachers and students to carry on fine traditions and to be ceaselessly enterprising. Our earnestly-expected hope for generations is realized today.” The event of placing the statue in our university has attracted the serious attention and amiable care from the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, Publicity Department of CCCPC, Party History Research Center of CCCPC, the Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee and Hunan Provincial Committee of CPC. On August 1st this year, circular of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee was issued for the formal approve of placing the statue in our university. September 10th is marked as the anniversary day when Chairman Mao Chairman Mao inscribed the name of Xiangtan University himself and instructed the authorities

to make a success of it as well as the 50th anniversary of the establishment of our university. It is of great significance to place a bronze statue of Chairman Mao as a landmark building of our campus culture on this gorgeous day. In commemoration of Chairman Mao, the statue serves as a reminder of Chairman Mao’s utmost solicitude and entrustment as well as our ambition to accelerate the pace to build our university into a high-level one. We should enhance the senses of responsibility, urgency and mission to make XTU a success, and keep on emancipating the mind and being enterprising. Only in this way can we build XTU well and thus live up to what Chairman Mao expected of us, and make greater contribution to reviving the Chinese Nation, building China into a powerful country in higher education, enriching our people and developing our province

By Jiang Haiwen from JOURNAL OF XIANGTAN UNIVERSITY
September 5, 2008