Pitt hosts Vice Premier Liu Yandong

The University of Pittsburgh hosted Vice Premier Liu Yandong from the People’s Republic of China for four hours on June 19, 2015.  Pitt was the first stop in the Vice Premier’s three-city US visit.  Vice Premier Liu, the Communist Party’s highest ranked female leader, began her visit to Pitt with a meeting with Chancellor Gallagher and senior academic leaders. 

Farewell:  Chancellor Patrick Gallagher; Ariel Armony, senior director of International Programs and director of the University Center for International Studies; Dr. Art Levine, senior vice chancellor of the Health Sciences and Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine; and Provost Patricia Beeson farewell Vice Premier Liu Yandong outside Scaife Hall.

During the meeting in the Chancellor’s office, the Vice Premier and her delegation of 20 ministers and vice ministers witnessed Chancellor Gallagher and Sichuan University’s President Xie unveiling a plaque for the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute.  The purpose-built engineering Institute, located in the western city of Chengdu, will open to its first class of 100 students in September 2015.  Chancellor Gallagher and Provost Beeson plan to be in Chengdu to greet the inaugural class of students.

Following the meeting with Chancellor Gallagher, Vice Premier Liu visited the University of Pittsburgh Confucius Institute (CI-Pitt), which is housed within the Asian Studies Center.  She met CI-Pitt director Michele Heryford and her staff, and learned about the extensive outreach program to K-16 schools across Pennsylvania and Ohio.  

Ariel Armony, senior director of international programs and director of the University Center for International Studies introduced Madam Liu to the directors of Pitt’s area studies centers.  Madam Liu also had the opportunity to observe a Mandarin lesson for high-school students who are a Pitt for the three-week Summer Seminar on Global Issues organized by Pitt’s Global Studies Center.  For one hour each day, the students take a Mandarin lesson as a way to expose them to a less-commonly-taught foreign language.

At Alumni Hall more than 80 Confucius Institute K-12 school children enthusiastically greeted Vice Premier Liu.  The students, many who had travelled from as far away as Berks County, Pa., ranged from fourth graders to high school seniors.  Chancellor Gallagher publicly welcomed Vice Premier Liu to the University in front of an audience of approximately 200 faculty, staff, students and parents of CI-Pitt students.

This public segment of the visit included CI-Pitt students showcasing their Chinese language skills during four separate performances.  Each performance was introduced by dual Masters of Ceremony:  Clinton Liddick, who introduced the program in Chinese, is the winner of Pennsylvania Chinese Bridge Competition (2010) and a Hanban Scholarship recipient; Confucius Institute volunteer teacher, Ms. Li Yueming, introduced the program in English.

The opening song featured 50 students singing We Welcome You, a popular Chinese song that had the audience clapping along.  The students from grades 9-12 are participating in a Chinese summer camp program run by the Berks County Confucius Classroom.

Quaker Valley High School student Sabine Gross, spoke of her love for Mandarin.  She also played the violin and sang a folk song from Kanding area.  Ms. Gross is learning Mandarin through the distance education program at Beattie Career Center Confucius Classroom.

Daniel Tetreault, a high-school student from Schuylkill Valley School District who is learning Mandarin through the Berks County Confucius Classroom, recited The Oak, a Chinese poem.

The performances concluded with 10 fourth grade students from the immersion Chinese program at the Valley School of Ligonier.  They sang Masks for the Peking Opera.

Vice Premier Liu was delighted by the performances and concluded the show with an on-stage group photo with all CI-Pitt students and Chancellor Gallagher.

In her remarks, Vice Premier Liu announced three initiatives:

The funding for 50 CI-Pitt students to travel to China for summer camp
Funding for 10 scholarships for Pitt students to study Mandarin in China
The donation of 1,000 Chinese books for CI-Pitt
The final event of the Vice Premier’s visit was hosted by Pitt’s School of Medicine and UPMC.  Dr. Arthur Levine, senior vice chancellor and Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine talked about the benefits of the Pitt/UPMC health care model to provide cutting-edge academic and clinical medicine.  Vice Premier Liu and her delegation then heard from two Tsinghua University medical students who described how their biomedical research experience at Pitt will shape their future careers.  Forty-five Tsinghua students are undertaking biomedical research at the university and will return home to China to become the new generation of Chinese physician-scientists.

The Health Sciences visit also included a stop-off at the UPMC Neurosurgery outpatient clinic where Dr. Robert Friedlander, chair of neurological surgery, described the use of high definition fiber-tracking to plan surgical procedures.  Vice Premier Liu and her delegation donned 3-D glasses to watch a 3-D video of a procedure.  They also heard from one of Dr. Friedlander’s patients: a young woman who survived and fully recovered from brain cancer thanks to the high definition fiber-tracking brain surgery pioneered by Dr. Friedlander.  

After her Pittsburgh visit, Vice Premier Liu travelled to Houston and followed that with a visit to Washington, DC for the 6th China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE).  The Exchange will be officially kicked off by the Vice Premier and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on June 23.