On June 16, “Tianjin and Philadelphia International Symposium on Education” was held online. The symposium was organized by Foreign Affairs Office of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, co-organized by Nankai University. Representatives from universities in Tianjin and Philadelphia gathered online and discussed possible international exchanges and cooperation in higher education during the epidemic. Huang Chunyan, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government, Liu Xin, Deputy Director of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, Samuel K. Chueh, Director of International Business & Global Strategy, Department of Commerce, City of Philadelphia, Wang Lei, Vice President of Nankai University and Hai-Lung Dai, Vice President for International Affairs of Temple University attended the symposium.

Huang Chunyan delivered a speech on the recent development and the international exchanges and cooperation of Tianjin. She said, in the last 40 years, Tianjin and Philadelphia, as sister cities, have carried out extensive exchanges and cooperation in broad areas and she expected that the two sister cities continue deepening exchanges and cooperation in various areas.

Liu Xin introduced Tianjin’s international exchanges in the field of education, and expressed his hope to further improve the educational cooperation mechanism with Philadelphia, thus promoting the overall friendly ties between the two cities.

Samuel K. Chueh introduced Philadelphia and especially its higher education. He noted that Philadelphia is a city of history and creativity, and higher education has always served as one of the most important ties to bring the two cities closer.

Wang Lei introduced the exchange and cooperation between Nankai University and the higher education institutions in Philadelphia. During the pandemic, Nankai University and Temple University have innovatively developed a program for Chinese students who were not able to study at Temple University due to the pandemic to continue their studies at Nankai University. He hopes to continue to expand educational exchanges and cooperation with Philadelphia.

After the opening ceremony, representatives from Temple University, Tianjin Normal University, Drexel University, Nankai University, Tianjin Julliard School and Tianjin Conservatory of Music had an in-depth discussion on topics of Opportunities and Challenges on International Exchange Faced by Teachers and Students during the Pandemic and the Role and Function of Language and Culture for the Cooperation and Exchange between Sister Cities.

(Reported by Fang Lan, photographed by Qiqi Zong, translated by Meixu Wu, edited by Davide Francolino, Senmao Lin, Lu An and JianjingYun)