On December 27, the “Integration · Co-creation · Forging Ahead” themed alumni forum of the Japanese Department of School of Foreign Languages and Literatures (SFLL) was held at Hongyuan Building, Yuzhong Campus. Lu Xiaobing, Secretary of the Party Committee of SFLL, Shi Wei, Deputy Secretary and Vice Dean, and Fang Yan, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, attended the forum. Li Xiao, Alumni Secretary, Guo Jiadong, ‌university counselor, all teachers and students of the Japanese Department, retired teachers Wang Yan, Wang Qiuping and Zhang Zhihai, as well as alumni from all over the country returned to their alma mater. They reunited with teachers and students on campus to conduct in-depth exchanges on professional construction, career development and talent cultivation. The forum was hosted by Fan Yaqiu, Deputy Director of the Japanese Department.

Lu delivered an opening speech, welcoming the alumni and introducing the school’s recent development, discipline construction achievements and future development plans. He stated that alumni are an important force for the school’s sustainable development, and he hoped that this forum would gather alumni wisdom to add vitality to foreign language majors in meeting the challenges of the new era. In the future, the school will further utilize alumni resources through more forms and invite alumni to participate in more links of talent cultivation. Chen Biao, Director of the Japanese Department, introduced the current status of the department in terms of faculty development and talent cultivation.

Shi Mingyu, an alumnus of Grade 2003 and Vice President of a domestic big data technology company, Ma Weidong, an alumnus of Grade 2004 and Deputy Minister of the Sales Department and Management Department of a well-known Japanese enterprise, Hu Wenhai, an alumnus of Grade 2007 and Prof. and PhD Supervisor at Zhejiang University, and Xu Yonghuang, an alumnus of Grade 2008 and Executive Vice President of Xiamen Chaori Education Group, were appointed as “Alumni Mentors” for the career development of current students. Lu presented the appointment letters to them.

In the theme sharing session, Shi delivered a speech titled “What Should We Prepare for Employment”, analyzing how to choose enterprises and positions that fit their own development, emphasizing the importance of early career planning, clarifying interests, focusing on industries and accumulating qualifications. Ma delivered a speech titled “The Advantage of ‘Japanese +’ to Realize Compound Value in Japanese Enterprise Workplaces”, in-depth expounding how to expand cross-field skills on the basis of consolidating professional Japanese ability, encouraging everyone to try across borders to find directions in practice. Hu delivered a speech titled “Understanding Elegance and Vulgarity in Snow, Moon and Flowers — My Journey in Japanese Haikai”, recalling his journey of engaging with Japanese haikai. Starting from haiku, he shared the humanistic value of language and literature, inspiring students to adhere to their academic love. Xu delivered a speech titled “Breaking Boundaries and Growing: Expanding Personal Career Layout with Japanese Skills”, analyzing talent needs from the enterprise perspective and expounding the important value of internship bases in improving the practical ability of language majors and expanding their career development space. Liu Qian, an alumnus of Grade 2005 and Deputy Director of the International Exchange Department of Gansu Provincial Department of Education, hosted the interactive session. Students actively raised questions about professional learning methods, career planning and development paths, and the on-site exchange was warm and in-depth.

At the forum, the internship base between SFLL and Xiamen Siming Chaori Education and Training Center was officially unveiled. Fang signed a cooperation agreement with Xu, and Shi awarded the plaque to the enterprise. Teachers and students of the Japanese Department presented a short video, in which familiar school memories were intertwined, instantly bringing the alumni’s thoughts back to their youthful years spent on campus.

The alumni forum provided a communication channel between alumni and the school, and built a high-quality platform for resource sharing，with not only reference for the academic planning and career development of Japanese majors, but also new vitality injected into the continuous optimization of the school’s Japanese discipline construction and talent training.