The opening ceremony for the Community of Life: Biodiversity Through the Lens Photo Exhibition took place on June 7th at the International Talent Communication Center in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Deputy Director General of the Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Office Sun Huaizhong and other distinguished guests attended the event. From Tsinghua SIGS, Wu Xiaofeng, the secretary of the CPC Tsinghua SIGS Committee, and the AUA Secretary and Associate Dean Zhang Chuanjie participated.
Exhibition opening ceremony
The photo exhibition includes a collection of 100 exceptional photos selected from the AUA Biodiversity Photo Contest, which took place between January and April 2022. Ninety-three students, faculty members, and staff from twelve AUA member universities submitted over 500 photographs. It was hosted by the AUA Secretariat and organized by Tsinghua SIGS.
Contest participants came from Chulalongkorn University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, King Saud University, the National University of Singapore, Nazarbayev University, Peking University, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, Universiti Malaya, the University of Colombo, and the University of Tokyo. Among the submitted photos, six prize winners were chosen in each of the contest’s two categories, smartphone and digital camera: one first prize winner, two second prize winners, and three third prize winners.
To bring greater attention to the critical global issue of biodiversity, the AUA Secretariat and Tsinghua SIGS cooperated with organizations including the Shenzhen Foundation for International Exchange and Cooperation (SFIEC) and the International Talent Communication Center on the exhibition.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Zhang Chuanjie introduced the AUA and the AUA Biodiversity Photo Contest. He also expressed his hope that this event will allow the international community to better understand Shenzhen and its internationalization efforts and that SIGS students will better understand other countries.
In his speech, Wu Xiaofeng introduced SIGS’s key features (international, borderless, and entrepreneurial) and its goal to cooperate with other global institutions to address major global challenges, including biodiversity. He also emphasized the meaningfulness of this event in bringing together Tsinghua, SIGS, and the larger community.
In the closing remarks, Sun Huaizhong, Deputy Director General of the Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Office, emphasized the importance of this event as an opportunity for cultural exchange as well as for promoting biodiversity. He pointed out Shenzhen’s uniqueness in biodiversity and expressed his hope for more similarly high-quality, international, and culturally valuable activities in Shenzhen.
The Asian Universities Alliance (AUA), first proposed by Tsinghua University, was co-founded in Beijing on April 29, 2017, by 15 institutions of higher education from 14 countries and regions across Asia. The AUA Biodiversity Photo Contest and Exhibition are part of a number of events for the AUA’s 5th anniversary this year and are also part of important yearly cultural events at Tsinghua SIGS.
The Community of Life: Biodiversity Through the Lens Exhibition is a traveling exhibition in Shenzhen. The International Talent Communication Center is its first venue.
The exhibition can be viewed online or at the International Talent Communication Center, 3rd Floor, T3, Chongwen Park, Nanshan i-Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen from June 7th to July 7th.
Editors: Alena Shish, Yuan Yang, Li Han
