In connection with the 100th anniversary of Yenching University, the opening ceremony of the Stuart Conference Room (SCR) was held at the Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) on October 8. We were honored by the attendance of Isabel Crook, recent recipient of the Medal of Friendship awarded by President Jinping Xi, Mr. Liliang He, former Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mingyi Wei, an alumnus of Yenching University and former president of the CITIC Group.

The Executive Director of SCPKU Mr. Jiashu Cheng delivered a welcoming speech and pointed out that the Stanford Center, as a bridge of cultural communication between China and US, is committed to promoting the mutual understanding and the mutual progress between the two countries. He also stated that the ceremony was being held in appreciation of Dr. John Leighton Stuart’s great efforts and his contributions to furthering US-China relations, especially the establishment of Yenching University, which are legendary and remain an inspiration to this day.

Jean Oi, a chaired professor in the political science department of Stanford University and Director of SCPKU expressed her sincere gratitude to Mr. Jiashu Cheng and his wife Mrs. Wan Xu for their generous donations. She emphasized that this multi-functional video conference room has the means to greatly advance the efforts started by Yenching University and Dr. Stuart to further strengthen cross-straits development and cooperation in education, science and technology, culture and many other fields.

The technology of SCR is a US-China joint effort. The state-of-the-art telecommunication / video conference technology is a product of Cisco Corporation of the United States, while the LED screen display technology comes from China’s Leyard Group. The SCR allows faculties and students from Chinese Universities who are sitting at SCPKU to connect, in real time, with more than 250 classrooms, labs, conference facilities and offices at Stanford University. Classes can be taught with teachers and students interacting in real time on both sides of the Pacific. The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) performed an inaugural trial run of the system a couple weeks ago, when students at the GSB held a joint class with Peking University’s Yenching Academy students who attended the class in the SCR.