On July 1st, upon retiring, Professor Yan Shuoqin, of the School of Arts and Law of the Open University of China (OUC), donated to the OUC Library more than 700 books which had been passed down in his family and collected by himself for many years.

Zhang Hui, Deputy Party Secretary of the OUC, Zhang Ruilin, Curator of the OUC Library, Ye Zhihong, Dean of the OUC School of Arts and Law, along with staff from the School of Arts and Law and the library, attended the donation ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by Cao Gang, who serves as Deputy Curator.

At the donation ceremony, Yan Shuoqin expressed his motivation in donating his personal collection, a total of 230 works in 705 volumes, including “Corpus of Chinese Classic Operas Works” and “Book of Jin”, which were family heirlooms passed down and collected by himself for many years at the time of his retiring. He said that he hoped that these works would contribute to the University's preservation and promotion of mankind's shared spiritual and artistic heritage.

Zhang Hui issued a donation certificate to Yan Shuoqin. Zhang Hui said that the last books received by the library were donated by the former Vice President, Sun Lvyi. Both Professor Sun and Professor Yan come from the School of Arts and Law, which is off to a good start in the donation of books to the library of the University. There is a long history of precedents in the West whereby certain individuals donate personal assets such as books, land, and funds to public institutions. Similar donations have been seen repeatedly in colleges and universities around China in recent years. Donating valuable personal assets to public institutions not only helps to better preserve the assets, but also allows more of the general population to derive utmost benefit from them. Since his graduation, Professor Yan Shuoqin has been working in the School of Arts and Law. Today he donated his books to the University. The deed was a manifestation of his love of the University as if it were his home. He hopes that other teachers will follow his example.

By Zhang Ruilin and Zhu Jin, the OUC