HNC Graduates Hold Alumni Day Celebration in Nanjing
October 19, 2024
On October 19, 2024, nearly 100 alumni of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center came together for the HNC Alumni Day in Nanjing, China. Some alumni from SAIS Washington, D.C. and SAIS Europe also joined their HNC colleagues at the celebration, along with SAIS Dean James Steinberg, and current HNC students, faculty, and staff.
The primary morning session of the day opened with remarks from Dean Steinberg, followed by a panel on the layers of state and society in contemporary U.S.-China relations. The panel, “States and Societies on the Changing Landscape of China-US Relations”, featured Chinese television commentator and author Yang Rui and SAIS Professor Emeritus of China Studies David M. Lampton. Adam Webb, the American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, moderated the lively discussion between Yang and Lampton, during which they also took questions from the audience.
After the panel and a buffet lunch in the HNC cafeteria, attendees listened to presentations by three HNC Master of Arts in International Studies students who introduced their thesis research. Fu Jiapei’s discussion was on “Competition for Global Leadership in Energy Transition Technologies Between China, the U.S., and Europe: The Case of Electric Vehicles.” Chen Ziyi focused on “Selective Securitization of Religions in Ethnic Conflict.” And Catalina González-Mojica’s topic was “Urban Water Resilience Planning in the Context of Climate Change: A Comparative Analysis of Bogotá and Shenzhen.”
Following the thesis presentations, Li Xiaorong, the Chinese co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, hosted an HNC alumni career panel. Featuring one international and three Chinese alumni—Lin Guoren, ’94, Daniel Kollar, ’14, Lu Guiping, ’94, and Zhou Yang, ’04—the discussion covered their different industries and addressed questions from alumni and current students in the audience.
In the late afternoon, alumni followed up with plans to reconnect with classmates over dinner at their favorite restaurants in the area. Many were then welcomed back to the HNC student lounge at 8:30 pm for the day’s final get-together, jointly organized by the HNC Student Committee (also known as the Banwei), and the HNC administration. Many lively conversations continued into the late hours.
