On the afternoon of August 16th, the openingceremony ofClass2022Specialized Graduate Students in Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture at the Joint Graduate School of Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies took placein Zoucheng City, Shandong Province, hometownof a great Confucian sage Mencius. 380 graduate students from 16 co-buildinguniversities participated in the ceremony online and on site. Sun Yao, Member of the CPC Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, andSun Jiye,Vice Governor of Shandong Province,attended and addressed the ceremony.Jin Nuo, Chairman of the Council of Nishan World Center for Confucian Studiesand Dean of the Joint Graduate School, presided over the ceremony and delivered a speech.

Liu Changya, Director of the Development and Planning Division of Ministry of EducationandVice Chairman of the Council of Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies, Huang Hongguang, Deputy Secretary-General of Shandong Provincial People’s Government, Li Ming, Deputy Executive Secretary of Education WorkingCommitteeof the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Director-General of Shandong Provincial Departmentof Education, and Guo Chengyan, Secretary of the Party Committee, Deputy Director, and Vice Chairman andSecretary Generalof the Council of the Center attendedthe event. Yu Yongsheng, Deputy Party Secretary and Mayor of Jining, delivered a welcome speech. Wang Xinsheng, Vice President of Nankai University, delivered a speech on behalf of theuniversities that jointly built the school.

The Joint Graduate School of Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies is a state-sponsored new type of graduate school. It was established by Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies in collaboration with16leading universities, namely the Party School of the Central of the CPC (National Academy of Governance), University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, Fudan University, Shandong University, Sichuan University, Wuhan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Jilin University, Nankai University, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University and Lanzhou University. The universities breaknew grounds in the training of graduatestudents through concerted effortsand jointly promote the study of excellent traditional Chinese culture and the high-level development of Confucianism education in the new era.

Aresearch program of the 2022 Graduate Class of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culturewill be held from August 17thto 28th. Experts and scholars will visit Confucian historical and cultural relics and rural communities in Qufu, Zoucheng, Jiaxiang and other places together withthegraduate students to explore the rich Confucian culture through lectures, on-site teaching, exchangesand discussions. Through the interpretation of the Chinese traditional culturein the modern context,awealthof valuable research outcomeswill come to fruition.