A magnificent audio-visual feast opened at the Shenzhen University Town International Conference Center, celebrating Nanyan’s 20th birthday with vigor and vitality. This year’s winter is as warm as ever, and one cannot help but recall the brilliant days of celebrating the centenary of the Communist Party of China this summer and the glorious tradition of Peking University (PKU). On the evening of December 4th, the 20th Anniversary Party of the Founding of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School (PKUSZ) was staged in Shenzhen University Town, where online and offline gatherings were held together.
The Entrance of the Party
Nanyan 20th Anniversary Time Tunnel
Academician representatives, leaders of the Peking University, leaders of partner universities, teachers and students of various faculties, alumni, and guests from all walks of life watched the performance. The party was strictly managed under the epidemic prevention requirements and conducted live video broadcasting at the same time. As the finale of the 20th anniversary of the Peking University Institute of Advanced Studies, this party invited all Nanyan people at home and abroad to gather in the "cloud" to spend this warm-hearted and prospective moment.
Guests visiting "Nanyan 20-Year Time Tunnel"
Through a variety of shows, such as singing, dancing, magic performance, recitations, cross talks, sitcoms, etc., the party described the spiritual inheritance "Patriotism, Progress, Democracy, and Science" of Peking University, reviewing the 20 years of stive and perseverance of Shenzhen Graduate School.
The Scene of the Celebration Party
The prologue was opened by the original campus MV "Nanyan Twenty" in revealing the first chapter of the evening party. Accompanied by the energetic beats, the Street Dance Team of Nanyan Art Troupe showed students' lively youth and enthusiasm with the dynamic dance show "We Rock."
Dance Show: We Rock
The “Flying Rainbow Ethnic Children’s Choir”, a charity project of Shenzhen Songhe Growth Care Foundation founded by alumni of PKU, is the first and only children’s choir featuring multi-ethnic culture in Shenzhen. The two-way exchange and nourishment of urban and rural culture aim to promote colorful national culture and to present the country's diverse music. They brought the song "Flying over the Rainbow", and demonstrated their innocent and pure voices bringing the stage vision to the far-reaching lands of the motherland and the lovely people.
Children's Chorus singing "Flying over the Rainbow"
In the magic performance "Time of Nanyan", the alumnus Xin Guanjie's rope magic impressed the audience, and the magical Rubik’s cube marvelously linked with the ticket amazed the audience again and again. More than that, the highlight was the splendid close-up card magic, which turned ordinary cards into a series of commemorative photos of Nanyan.
Magic Show: Time of Nanyan
The Dance Team of Nanyan Art Troupe performed the Folk Dance "Glimmering Dunhuang". The body art interpreted the glamour of Dunhuang flying charm depicted by Fan Jinshi alumni. The golden tone not only interprets "sparkle" but also embodies a brilliant vision for the future development of Nanyan.
Folk Dance: Glimmering Dunhuang
In the aftermath of applause, Cocoapink, a joint A cappella group of students from PKUSZ, Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School, and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), performed the ethereal classic song “Dreams” and the delicate and lovely refreshing song “Rather be”.
Acappella: Rather be
The Instrumental Team of Nanyan Art Troupe played “Da Yu” to uncover the second chapter, creating a fantastic dream of wandering in the magnificent ocean. Accompanied by the music, the solo dance from alumnus Hou Xinyu was seemingly waving on the coast of the South China Sea, representing Nanyan to dance through the storms in the past two decades.
Instrumental performance: Da Yu
The dual talk-show “Secrets of Nanyan” evoked exclusive memories with humorous and lively fresh paragraphs. Teachers Yang Liu and Zhao Yabo interacted freely with the audiences. All kinds of “secret stories” intertwined with the laughter making teachers and students closer to this campus. Teacher Zhao also adapted the song “My Nanyan and I”, touching our hearts with the beautiful singing.
Dual talk-show: Secrets of Nanyan
In the song series “Light”, 6 students from different Schools performed 3 songs igniting a main theme of “Embrace the light” in different styles. They cooperated and supported each other. FengLei Crew’s hip-hop performance “Rhythm in Storm” represented a group of like-minded partners getting together because of interest and love, bursting out an amazing impact.
Song series: Embrace the Light
HipHop: Rhythm in Storm
The Greater Bay Area attracts people from all corners of the world to work and live. Famous singer Xu Xia, who is also an alumnus of PKU, brought the song “China in the Lights” with respect to hardworking people and their vigorous vibrancy. The background showing unique nightscapes and bay port of the Greater Bay Area described the prosperity and tranquility under the converging of lights.
Xu Xia Singing “China in the Lights”
An original sitcom "Youth in the Age of Awakening" created by Nanyan's teachers and students opened the third chapter. It depicted a long-distance relationship between two PKU students who have been separated by a century, showing the PKU spirit with the ambition of national salvation and union of peoples.
The sitcom: Youth in the Age of Awakening
After the passionate and unrestrained Latin dance performed by the Sports Dance Team of Nanyan Art Troupe, the venue became more and more enthusiastic. The original poem recitation "Twenty Years of Nanyan, Youth is as Beginning" is full of the most ardent and sincerest feelings along with the best wishes for Nanyan, bringing the party to the climax.
Latin Dance: Broken Love Front League
Poem Recitation: Twenty Years of Nanyan, Youth is as Beginning
Representatives from the various Schools and faculty brought a fashion show "Youth Nanyan", from the creative design of the orientation camp sweatshirts to the image display of the professional characteristics in different specialties, then to the exhibition of dressing style in decades, delivering the youthful energy to the audiences.
Fashion Show: Youth Nanyan
At the end of the party, the leaders of the Academy stepped to the stage and sang a song "The Country" together with the student choir, sending the best wishes to our country and peoples.
The leaders of the Academy and the Student Choir of Nanyan Art Troupe singing "The Country"
Twenty years ago, Peking University and Shenzhen City jointly established the Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. The fire of the Red Mansion in Northland took root in the warm embrace of Pengcheng. In the past two decades, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has thoroughly implemented the Party's educational policy, fulfilled the fundamental tasks of fostering talents and opened up a new realm in education.
The School will always keep in mind the original mission of “Educate people for the Party and cultivate talents for the country”, continually driving innovation and coordinated development with greater courage. PKU participates in the construction of new engineering disciplines in all directions, and closely combines the needs of the Two-cities strategic development to build a technological innovation system that mutually supports and complements each other by advantages. We are building a talents training highland that faces the world and leads the future, to assist the social development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even the country.
The celebration party ended successfully
Behind-the-Scenes Interviews
Fenglei Crew from PKU main campus: As performers, we appreciate the opportunity to participate in Nanyan's 20th birthday. At the same time, I am very happy to see the vigorous development of Nanyan. In the south of the motherland, it will carry forward the ideas of patriotism, progress, democracy, and science. Happy birthday to Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School!
Dancers: It is my honor to have such an opportunity to participate in the 20th-anniversary event, and I am very satisfied with our performance. From the initial selection of music and choreography to the continuous uninterrupted rehearsal, every link is inseparable from the guidance of the Youth League Committee teacher and the hard work of the students in the Team. I also hope that there will be more opportunities to show you every outstanding member of our Nanyan Art Troupe Street Dance Team~ Wish Nanyan will stick to its original goal in the next 20 years and will have a great future!
Student Volunteer: Because of my work in the Youth League Committee, I have been deeply exposed to a lot of preparations for the 20th-anniversary celebration. I am very glad and grateful to have the opportunity to witness such a special moment as the 20th anniversary of Shenzhen Graduate School as soon as I entered the university. I mainly followed up the original sitcom, magic performance, and the dance show “We Rock”. The magic show needed the pictures of the most show-worthy moment of the 20th anniversary, therefore I chose 58 photos and gave them to magician Guan Jie out of nearly 3 gigabytes of pictures. Each photo in different cards sealed a corresponding period since this land was laid bare, to the time when the very first freshmen came to school, to the scene of the first final exams, etc. Most importantly, the script for the sitcom is the most crucial element. Starting with the scene-selection work, I watched the “Awakening Years” from beginning to end, pulled out the scenes that could be put on the stage, took screenshots to date, and identified the main characters for actors. Looking back now, from the scene selection to the staging, through the scriptwriting and modification, recruitment of actors and volunteers, dressing preparation, as well as running down the rehearsal, these cost a lot of effort. However, these are the most valuable and unforgettable harvest of my work. Happy Birthday to Nanyan!
Reporter: Zeng Xinlan
Editor: Andrew Fong Tsz Hei, Zhang Wendou
Photos: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School
