On the evening of September 27, the foundation ceremony of “Approaching the Public” Fund as well as the inaugural ceremony of The Starry Night above Us by Mr. Lin Yanping and his keynote lecture was conducted in Rm. 138 of Zijingang Int’l Conference Center, ZJU.

  Upholding the ideas of promoting higher education, advancing academic research, popularizing civil spirit and leading China to a civil society, Mr. Lin Yanping, President of Francis International Trade Company, Canada and Director of Zhejiang Francis Trade Company, as the initiator of the Fund, put in 1 million RMB to set up “Approaching the Public” Fund to finance the relevant research organizations of Zhejiang University to conduct researches on ancient Greece and Jewish Christianity tradition, presentations and publications of the fruits of civil spirit construction.

  In the ceremony, Professor Luo Weidong, Vice President of ZJU thought highly of the academic enthusiasm of Mr. Lin Yanping and expressed heartfelt thanks to his support of the arts construction in ZJU. In addition, he hoped the Fund could further promote the researches on ancient Greece and Jewish Christianity tradition and inspire the speculation and retrospection of students. Professor Bao Limin, Director of Research Institute of Foreign Philosophy introduced the goals of the Fund and granted “Guest Research Fellow of School of Humanities”, letter of employment to Mr. Lin Yanping. Gu Yulin, Deputy Secretary General of the Education Fund, ZJU granted the certificate of donation to Mr. Lin. Huang Baozhong, Deputy Chief Editor of Zhejiang University Press introduced The Starry Night above Us of Mr. Lin and the publication plan financed by the Fund in the future. Professor Huang Huaxin, President of School of Humanities chaired the ceremony.
  After the ceremony, Mr. Lin Yanping delivered a speech of “Civil Society in Starry Night”. Mr. Lin, beginning from the source of the concept of “civil”, traced the spiritual source of “freedom, equality and philanthropy” of the modern society from the “four axioms”, “two theorems” and “one principle” of ancient Greek civilization to restore a civil society full of competition, speculation, criticism, humanistic method, scientific and democratic spirits. Mr. Lin, with his sensational speech, abundant materials and humorous language, led the audience into a trip to ancient Greek civilization.

  Xinhua News Agency, Qianjiang Evening, Youth Times, Today Morning Express and News Office of ZJU carried reports of this activity.