Winton Dong dht0620@126.com THE CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee and Shenzhen Municipal Government sent a congratulatory letter to Shenzhen University on Aug. 6, highlighting the excellent performance of the school’s athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. As we know, the quality of sports education is an important index for evaluating a university. In the letter, local authorities praised Shenzhen University’s unceasing efforts in cultivating sports talents over the past years and hope the school can make greater contributions to the country’s educational reform and sports development in the future. Shenzhen University graduate Chen Meng and her teammate Sun Yingsha, who represent the Shenzhen Team in the Chinese Table Tennis Super League, won the women’s table tennis singles gold and silver respectively at the Olympics on July 29. Such a victory meant that athletes from the same university secured the two medals for China. The two players are also key members, together with Chinese athlete Wang Manyu, to defeat the Olympic host country Japan and help China bag the gold medal in the women’s table tennis team competition Aug. 5. It is a miraculous coincidence that another two athletes from Shenzhen University also won gold July 29, thus making the school the only higher learning institution in China that won golds at two Olympic events on the same day. In addition to the success in table tennis, in the swimming pool, Yang Junxuan, a sports training major from Shenzhen University, and Tang Muhan, a first-year sports training major of the university, joined two other Chinese teammates to break a world record and win the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay gold medal July 29. Established in 1983, Shenzhen University is a relatively young school even in China with a history of only 38 years. Since its founding, the university has been committed to educational reform and rapid development, pursuing excellence in teaching, learning and academic research. Despite the fact that Shenzhen University is a local school, it takes great pains to attract high-caliber teachers and researchers from all over the world. Among its 2,000-plus faculty members, there are now 14 academicians. According to statistics released by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in May 2021, nine subjects of the university have entered into the top 100 list in the world. Shenzhen University is also very strong in scientific and technological innovation. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released a report in March 2021, showing that with 252 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) registrations in the year of 2020, Shenzhen University ranked first among all Chinese universities and ranked 3rd worldwide. Based in Shenzhen, the country’s pilot city of reform and opening up, Shenzhen University has closely followed the pace setting, technological innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering quality of the legendary special economic zone. The university also boasts a distinctive business-oriented campus culture and shining alumni lists. Its alumni have thus far established dozens of enterprises with significant influence in China and the world. According to news reports, Shenzhen University is the higher learning institution that nurtured the largest number of billionaires in the country. Ma Huateng (chief founder of Tencent), Zhang Zhidong (co-founder of Tencent), Zhou Qunfei (founder of Lens Technology), Shi Yuzhu (founder of Giant Network) and many other business tycoons graduated from the university. Ma Huateng, who got his bachelor’s degree from the university in 1993, is now the 19th richest person in the world with a net wealth of more than 390 billion yuan (US$61.2 billion). (The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.) | 