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UCAS hosts 2023 International Cultural Festival
On October 14th, 2023, a grand international cultural festival occurred at the Yuquanlu Campus of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), marking a resounding success. This event united students from over 30 countries and regions spanning Asia, Europe, and Africa, spotlighting the incredible diversity and global cultural richness. More than 3,000 Chinese and international faculty and students participated with zeal, while live photo streams amassed a staggering 350,000 views, electrifying the atmosphere.
YANG Guoqiang, Vice President of UCAS, honored the gathering with his attendance and inspiring words. He warmly invited all teachers, students, and alumni to partake in the International Cultural Festival in honor of the 45th anniversary of UCAS. YANG delved into the current state of international students at UCAS, acknowledged the institution's significant strides in international student education over the past decade—aligning with the 10th anniversary of "the Belt and Road Initiative"—and called upon young minds worldwide to engage in collective learning, deepen mutual understanding, and champion the vision of "a global community of shared future."
Speech by YANG Guoqiang, Vice President of UCAS
The festival featured a tapestry of cultures as international students proudly presented their countries' unique traditions, landscapes, cuisines, and attire. In harmony with their Chinese counterparts, students from nations like Nepal and Rwanda captivated audiences with riveting folk music and dance. Mike, a student from Rwanda, sang a Chinese song titled Waiting, showcasing his affection for Chinese culture. In an open talent segment, music transcended borders and language divides, stirring a collective vibe of friendship, unity, and joy.
Dances Performed by Nepalese Students
Dances Performed by Rwandan Students
Guzheng Performance by a Chinese Student
A symphony of melodies continuously resonated from the stage while the cultural booths bustled. Attendees eagerly participated in a stamp collection activity, using the "Passports of the International Culture Festival of UCAS" at these booths. This endeavor allowed them to embark on a virtual global journey without leaving the campus. Delights such as Danish beer, Ukrainian pickled ham with black bread, aromatic Ceylon black tea from Sri Lanka, and explorations into why Azerbaijan is dubbed the "Land of Flame" awaited them. A UCAS student on-site remarked that the festival enriched his appreciation for diverse cultures, reinforcing his bond with the notion of a global community of shared future and his cherished institution. An online participant commented, "This immersive journey through various cultures, rich traditions, and historical landscapes has been invigorating. The world is truly fascinating due to its diversity and beauty rooted in inclusivity!"
Bustling Cultural Booths
Stamp Their Cultural Passports at Booths
Colored Painting on Hands
Danish Dessert
Introduction of Local Language and Culture
Display of Traditional Musical Instruments in the Middle East
Crafts at the Cultural Booths
Loaded with Prizes and Gifts
"Civilization flourishes with dialogue, and richness emerges from shared learning." The International Cultural Festival served as a beacon for cultural exchange, allowing students to embrace and express their identities. It crafted a setting where Chinese and international faculty and students reveled in a mutual, inclusive, and open cultural exchange. UCAS became a stage where all faculty and students witnessed the harmonious blending of diverse cultures, forging cross-border friendships and joyously cheering, "Happy birthday to UCAS!". Each smile and interaction epitomized the spirit of global friendship. Regardless of origin, the symphony of cultures can unite us, passing the torch of friendship and shared cultural heritage.
A Group Photo for the Event
Extension: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) officially began admitting international students in 2004. Since the inception of “the Belt and Road Initiative” in 2013, UCAS has made remarkable strides in nurturing international students. Currently, there are 2,004 international students from 99 countries, studying at 96 UCAS colleges and CAS institutes for 100 majors. Those include 1,271 doctoral candidates and 710 master’s students.
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Live photo stream: https://as.alltuu.com/album/1301617704/?from=link&menu=live
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Research News
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Progress evenness - a critical dimension to guide global sustainable development and human well-being
Structural evenness is a widely adopted essential concept in both the natural and social sciences, such as the biodiversity in ecology and the wealth gap in economics. However, the role of structural evenness in sustainable development — the blueprint for human society — has rarely been explored, despite the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizing the holistic fulfillment of all 17 goals. Based on our previous research experiences in ecology, we developed the SDG progress evenness index (ES) to quantify the progress differences among 17 goals, while integrating ES with the widely adopted mean SDG index score (MIS) to build up a novel two-dimensional SDG assessment framework (Liu et al. Natl. Sci. Rev., 2021, doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa238; Liu et al. The Innovation, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100573). Furthermore, following this assessment framework, we investigated the global effects of progress towards SDGs on human subjective well-being (SWB) — another well-established metric that has guided human activities and social development for thousands of years.
The decoupling dependence of SWB on SDG evenness and per capita GDP, as countries proceed towards achieving SDGs (Figure 1). In countries with poorly-progressed SDGs, SDG evenness is the key factor shaping the SWB, while in countries with well-progressed SDGs, SWB strongly depends on per capita GDP.
Figure 1 The similar decoupling relationships between SWB and SDG evenness (left) and plant productivity and biodiversity (right; Wang et al. 2022)
Implications:
Science: resource redundancy in sustainable development. The decoupling relationship between SDG evenness and SWB suggests that the more even allocation of resources in multiple aspects of human society (resource redundancy) is generally vital in stressful instead of non-stressful environments, which is in line with the well-established organizational slack theory in economics (Sharfman et al., Acad. Manag. Rev., 1988). The underlying mechanism can be ascribed to Liebig's Law of Minimum: the more shortcomings in sustainable development, the lower the SWB is, highlighting the importance of SDGs from the individual human perspective. On the other hand, the neutral or negative effects of SDG evenness might be explained by the potential trade-offs between environmental protection and economic development. Countries approaching fulfillment of SDGs have abundant resources to meet essential human needs, while their underperforming goals generally relate to the environment (for example, SDGs 12, 13, and 14). Elevating SDG evenness is generally associated with improving progress on lagging goals such as environmental conditions, thus enhancing SWB. However, such emphases on environmental protection might slow down or impede economic growth, the most vital determinant of SWB, thus neutralizing or even overriding the positive effects of improving environmental quality.
Policy: bottom-up strategies. Advances in science, social equality and press freedom might help stimulate people's desire for SDGs (Figure 2), which are paramount and effective in promoting sustainable development. For instance, through more fundamental research and public outreach programs, people could be warned of the negative outcomes of unsustainable development from individual perspectives and thus reattach their SWB to SDGs.
Figure 2 Social governance factors promote the synergy between SDG evenness and SWB
For the first time, our study uncovers the long-neglected subjective control factor in global sustainable development. How the current SDG framework can better convert its achievements into SWB outcomes constitutes a vital frontier in sustainable research, involving not only economic incentives and technological innovations but also broad social, educational and cultural shifts. Moreover, this unimodal SWB-SDG evenness relationship resembles the well-established hump-backed plant productivity-biodiversity relationship in ecology (some references: Grime, Nature, 1973, doi: 10.1038/242344a0; Fraser et al. Science, doi: 10.1126/science.aab3916; Wang et al. Natl. Sci. Rev., 2022, doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwac165; Figure 1), underscoring the importance of structural evenness in the broader disciplines, including biology, ecology, economics, sustainability and social sciences.
Source: Nature
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